Cyrus Vance Jr.

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This article is about the New York County District Attorney. For his father, the former U.S. Secretary of the Army and Secretary of State, see Cyrus Vance.

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Cyrus Vance Jr.
DA Vance.jpg
Cyrus R. Vance Jr.
New York County District Attorney
Assumed office
January 1, 2010
Preceded by Robert M. Morgenthau
Personal details
Born Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr.
(1954-06-14) June 14, 1954 (age 69)
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Political party Democratic Party
Spouse(s) Peggy McDonnell (m. 1984)
Children 2
Residence New York City
Alma mater Yale University (B.A.)
Georgetown University (J.D.)
Occupation Attorney[1]
Website www.manhattanda.com
Nickname(s) Cyrus "White Shoes" Vance

Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. (born June 14, 1954) is the incumbent New York County District Attorney (Manhattan), and was previously a principal at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C. He is the son of Cyrus Vance, former Secretary of State to President Jimmy Carter. He is known as an outspoken critic of encryption of mobile devices.[2]

Biography

Youth, family, and education

Vance grew up in New York City. He is the son of Grace Elsie (Sloane) and Cyrus Vance, Sr., who served as Secretary of the Army under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Johnson, then Secretary of State to President Jimmy Carter.

Vance attended the Buckley School and Groton School, and then he went on to graduate from Yale University. He then earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1982. While in law school, he planned campaign trips for Colorado Senator Gary Hart.

He moved to Seattle, Washington in 1989, and back to New York City in 2005. He and his wife, printer and photographer Peggy McDonnell,[3] were married in 1984 and have two children, both of whom attended high school in New York City.

Legal career

Upon graduating from Georgetown, Vance joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as an Assistant District Attorney, where he supervised grand jury investigations and prosecuted cases involving murder, organized crime, career criminals, political corruption, international art fraud, and white-collar crime.

In 1988, Vance moved to Seattle because, according to Vance, he wanted to build a name for himself independent of his father's influence.[4] In 1995, Vance co-founded McNaul Ebel Nawrot Helgren & Vance.[5][6] During this time; Vance taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law.

In 2004, Vance returned to New York, where he joined Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello & Bohrer, P.C. as a principal.

Vance is admitted to the bar in New York State, Washington State, and Washington, D.C., and to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern District of New York and Western and Eastern Districts of Washington, and the U.S. Second and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Vance is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America – The New York Area’s Best Lawyers[7] and New York’s Superlawyers – Manhattan Edition.[8]

District Attorney Vance at a town hall meeting

Public service

In addition to serving as an Assistant District Attorney, Vance has been actively involved in sentencing reform policy, conviction integrity and prosecutorial oversight, and has donated his time to the representation of indigent defendants.[citation needed]

Vance was a consulting expert to the Office of Family and Children Ombudsman in its investigation of the Wenatchee child abuse prosecutions, and served as Special Assistant Attorney General representing the state in investigations and litigation. He has served on sentencing commissions in two states, including New York, where he served on the Governor's Sentencing Commission, which helped overhaul New York’s Rockefeller drug laws.[9]

Vance also served, by appointment of the Governor of New York, as a member of the New York State Appellate Division, First Department, Judicial Screening Panel which makes recommendations on judicial appointments.[citation needed] Vance is a member of the Criminal Justice Council of the New York City Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the New York Council of Defense Lawyers.[citation needed]

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Modern Courts, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Cyrus Vance Sr., Vance's father died of Alzheimer's Disease in 2002.[10]

2009 Manhattan District Attorney election

In 2008, Vance announced his intention to seek the District Attorney’s office only if current District Attorney Robert Morgenthau decided to retire.[11] On March 9, 2009, ten days after Morgenthau made his decision to retire public, Vance officially announced his candidacy for the office.[12][13] On an April 8, 2009, appearance on Charlie Rose, Morgenthau said of Vance, “I think Vance is by far the best qualified. Good lawyer, fair.”[14] Morgenthau officially endorsed Vance on June 25.[15]

Other public figures who endorsed Vance included former Mayor David Dinkins,[16] Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum,[17] Gloria Steinem, Caroline Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld of The Innocence Project. The New York Times,[18] New York Daily News,[19] New York Post,[20] and New York Amsterdam News[21] also endorsed Vance.

Vance stated that as Manhattan District Attorney, he would develop a program of “Community Based Justice”,[22] in which teams of prosecutors would be aligned to specific precincts and communities so as to develop a working relationship with community members, police officers, and local organizations. According to Vance, the Community Based Justice Program would make crime reduction a central measure of performance. Vance has also proposed a plan designed to reduce the year-long case backlog in the New York Criminal Court where the overwhelming majority of criminal cases are brought.[23] In addition to processing cases, Vance has expressed his commitment to establishing a conviction integrity panel to carefully review allegations of wrongful conviction and promoting alternatives to incarceration that do not compromise public safety.[24]

Vance states that he has always been opposed to the death penalty.[25]

Vance emerged victorious after facing former judge and 2005 D.A. candidate Leslie Crocker Snyder, and Richard Aborn, another former Assistant District Attorney and gun control advocate, in the September 15, 2009, Democratic primary.[26] The victory ensured that Vance became the fourth person to run the office since 1941, given the traditional absence during Morgenthau's tenure of a Republican backed opponent.[27]

On November 3, 2009, Vance won the general election with a 91 percent share of the votes cast.[28]

Manhattan District Attorney

Vance was sworn into office as the Manhattan District Attorney on January 1, 2010. Within a few months, he established or consolidated numerous new bureaus and units in an effort to modernize the District Attorney's Office. Vance's administration established a Conviction Integrity Program,[29] Crime Strategies Unit,[30] Cybercrime and Identity Theft Bureau,[31] Forensic Sciences/ Cold Case Unit,[32] Hate Crimes Unit,[33] Public Integrity Unit,[34] Special Victims Bureau,[35] and Vehicular Crimes Unit.[36][37]

District Attorney Vance speaks at a February 2011 press conference

Notable cases

Vance's recent successes include the sentencing of a serial rapist to 428 years to life in prison;[38] sentencing of a man to 23 years to life in prison for a domestic violence murder;[39] indictments against 26 individuals living in Manhattan who possessed graphic images of child sexual assault;[40] the sentencing of a man to at least 15 years in prison for a 2000 rape; a sentencing of a man to 25 to life in prison for a 1997 home invasion and murder;[41] an indictment against another man for a 1986 rape and murder;[42] and the guilty plea of a man for attacking a woman in the restroom of a bar in Hell's Kitchen.[43]

Vance has also won convictions in an October 2009 drunk-driving incident that killed 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, resulting in the creation of Leandra's Law; and a case of two men in a 2005 murder-for-hire plot. In January 2011, the District Attorney's Forensic Sciences/ Cold Case Unit announced an indictment against noted serial killer Rodney Alcala for two Manhattan homicides in the 1970s.

District Attorney Vance at June 2011 press conference on child assault

Vance's newly created Major Economic Crimes Bureau has won convictions in the $120 million-dollar art fraud prosecution of the Salander-O'Reilly Gallery, the gallery's president Lawrence Salander and director Leigh Morse, in which Robert De Niro, Jr. was one of the principal witnesses for the prosecution;[44] a $100 million-dollar securities fraud scheme in which Yale University was one of the victims;[45] a $100 million-dollar mortgage fraud case;[46] and a $7 million-dollar Ponzi scheme.[47] The District Attorney's Office in June 2011 announced indictments in a conspiracy involving 11 corporations who evaded U.S. economic sanctions on Iran by funneling tens of millions of dollars through Manhattan banks.[48] To date, Vance's administration has brought hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to New York City.[49]

Cyrus Vance prosecuted programmer Sergei Aleynikov for duplicating computer code from Goldman Sachs, following the reversal of his federal conviction by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Although the state case found Aleynikov guilty. On July 6, 2015, a New York State Supreme Court justice overturned that decision.[50]

Motor vehicle prosecution

Transportation advocates have criticized Vance's office for what they see as a history of failing to fully prosecute motor vehicle offenses that result in death or serious injury to pedestrians and cyclists.

In July 2010, no charges were filed when an MTA tow truck struck and killed a seven-year-old boy standing on the sidewalk.[51] In October 2010, Vance declined to press charges in the dooring death of Michael Ewing, on the rationale that, because the engine was not running and because the person who opened the door into Ewing's path did not have the keys in his possession, that person could not be prosecuted as a driver.[52]

In August 2013, a cab driver hopped a curb, injuring several pedestrians and severing the leg of a British tourist. Despite a history of driving offenses, and admitting that he intentionally hit the gas before entering the sidewalk, the driver was able to regain his cab license, and after a two-month investigation, no charges were filed.[53]

In October 2014, Vance's office offered a plea to a driver accused of intentionally striking a cyclist with his car. The deal reduced charges of third-degree assault, punishable by up to a year in jail, to leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. The motorist paid a $250 fine.[54]

The lack of prosecutorial aggressiveness from Vance's office, in spite of recently passed vulnerable user laws[55] and Vance's own initiatives[56] has led to widespread media commentary on whether New York City cyclists can reasonably expect protection from the justice system.[57][58]

Additionally, during an investigation into faded white flags flown over the Brooklyn Bridge in July 2014, Vance's office subpoenaed a farcical Twitter account, purporting to be the bicycle industry lobby, which had jokingly taken responsibility for the flag swap.[59] The flags were later revealed to be the work of German artists.[60]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn case

Vance initially came under criticism by the media for his handling of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case, where the French head of the International Monetary Fund was arrested based on the — legally doubtful — accusations of an employee of the Sofitel hotel.[61] However, Vance was praised by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,[62] former Mayor Ed Koch, former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau,[63] and other prominent litigators and government officials for adhering to prosecutorial protocol and acting with integrity.[64] Vance has also been applauded in editorials by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Daily News for making a "tough but fair and just call" in "an exceptional case" in which a woman made a credible accusation against a very powerful man.[65][66][67][68] The Wall Street Journal wrote: "DSK got neither more nor less than he deserved—something for which he can blame, and thank, Cy Vance and America's justice system."[66]

Affiliations

Vance serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Police Athletic League of New York City, a non-profit youth development agency that helps inner-city children.[69]

References

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  35. ↑ [1]
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  50. ↑ Convistion overturned, NYTimes, 7/6/2015
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External links

Legal offices
Preceded by New York County District Attorney
2010–present		 Incumbent
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