By Scott Brinton
Dillon says he is, and that he has the crime statistics to prove it. He notes that Nassau's crime rate is the lowest in the nation for a county of 1 million people or more, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dillon believes that the county's stable, middle-class demographics play a part in keeping crime low. But he says that his office's record of meting out swift justice acts as a crime deterrent.
Dillon, 71, of Rockville Centre, also notes that his office boasts a 98 percent conviction rate -- the highest in the state. "If you're arrested for a felony or a violent felony in Nassau County, you're more likely to be convicted of a felony than in surrounding counties," he says.
His opponent, 40-year-old Democrat Kathleen Rice, attacks the district attorney's conviction rate, saying that he offers too many plea deals, which keeps the conviction rate high, but criminals less often face the stiffest penalties the law allows.
Rice, a Locust Valley resident who grew up in Garden City, has also launched a series of attacks against Dillon's pro-life activism. A devout Catholic who left the Democratic Party over the abortion issue, Dillon has served as a pro-life spokesman for years. On the day he was interviewed by the Herald for this article, he wore a suit jacket with a pro-life emblem sewn into his lapel.
Twice in the past two weeks, Rice has sent out countywide mailings berating Dillon's pro-life stance. One features a young woman standing before the U.S. Supreme Court. Her mouth is taped. "No choice. No exceptions. No matter what" is written over the tape. Inside the pamphlet, a banner headline reads, "District Attorney Denis Dillon has already said no to a woman's right to choose -- under any circumstance."
Rice notes that, in 1989 and 1990, Dillon hired a special prosecutor to try a case involving a group of pro-life advocates who were arrested during an anti-abortion rally.
Dillon counters that the First Amendment allows him to express his personal views, and that he has never permitted his beliefs to color his judgment on the job. He says that he hired a special prosecutor to avoid the perception that his office might give special treatment to the pro-life advocates. He has since reached an agreement with the Suffolk County district attorney that allows him to farm out cases that might involve personal conflicts. That pact, he notes, costs taxpayers nothing.
Rice, who was raised a Catholic, also argues that Dillon served as the "getaway driver for the Catholic Church," giving the church lenient treatment in the wake of revelations that a number of Long Island priests had sexually abused children over the years. She points to the Suffolk County district attorney's office, which convened a one-year grand-jury investigation into alleged abuses by priests and issued a report. Dillon did not.
The district attorney says that his office prosecuted two priests for sexual abuse -- one from East Meadow, the other from East Rockaway. He also notes that he issued the first grand-jury subpoena to investigate allegations of more widespread abuse by priests. But his office determined that the suspected priests could not be indicted, because the statutes of limitations on their crimes had run out.
Dillon says that rather than convene a costly grand jury investigation that would accomplish little, he focused on writing legislation that would require the Catholic Church and any other organization to report sexual misconduct by employees. He also wrote a bill that would extend the statute of limitations on sexual abuse of a child to 15 years past the victim's 18th birthday. Dillon says his goal was to prevent future abuse by priests or anyone else.
He took his bills to the state Legislature, where he found sponsors in the Senate and Assembly. Dillon's efforts received scant media attention. The Republican-controlled Senate passed both measures overwhelmingly. But the Democratic-led majority defeated each, effectively killing them.
The Democratic-controlled county Legislature then picked up Dillon's bill to require reporting of sexual abuse by any organization. Dillon's office worked closely with local legislators in writing a bill that would stand up to the toughest judicial scrutiny if it were challenged in the courts.
The county passed the legislation, and is now the only county in the state requiring organizations to report any and all abuse.
For his part, Dillon attacks Rice's experience. He says her previous jobs, as a Brooklyn assistant district attorney and a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, gave her none of the managerial experience required to run an office with a $25 million budget and 300 employees, 155 of whom are attorneys. Before becoming district attorney 31 years ago, Dillon says, he gained the requisite managerial experience as head of a federal mob strike force.
Rice says she has plenty of managerial experience. She has tried a number of murder cases, each of which required her to work with and direct police investigators. Rice boasts that in one year, while working in Brooklyn, she alone tried 21 murder cases. In any given year, she said, the Nassau County district attorney's office may try as few as 10.
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
