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The investigation into former Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock was conducted by the Conviction Integrity Bureau and New York Law School Post-Conviction Innocence Clinic.
“This is a historic report, and it shows our commitment not just to righting any past injustices made by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, but to making sure that kind of misconduct never occurs again,” Sini said.
Kurtzrock served in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office from 2004 to his resignation in 2017 and was assigned to the Homicide Bureau from 2010 to 2017.
In 2017, he was serving as the trial prosecutor in a homicide case, People v. Messiah Booker, when it was discovered by then-defense attorney Brendan M. Ahern that Kurtzrock had failed to produce information that was required by law to be disclosed, including evidence that identified an alternative suspect as a potential perpetrator of the crime, the report said.
The violations were affirmed by a Special Referee appointed by the Grievance Committee and the state Supreme Court which resulted in the temporary suspension of Kurtzrock’s law license.
The opinion concluded, however, that there was “no showing that he engaged in any similar conduct in any other cases.”
Sini then tasked the CIB with determining if any other defendants’ fair trial rights were affected by misconduct similar to that which occurred in the Booker case and, in the event that any similar misconduct was identified if the Grievance Committee or Appellate Division required additional information that might affect the Appellate Division’s conclusion that his misconduct was isolated.
The 36-page report examined 20 cases Kurtzrock worked on between 2004 and 2017, the DA's Office said
The report resulted in the dismissal of a homicide indictment against one defendant, who was released from prison after serving six years of a 75 years-to-life sentence.
In the Booker case, murder charges against Booker and three co-defendants were dropped and each of the four defendants pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
To avoid future similar misconduct, Sini's office said it had adopted a disclosure policy in 2018 that requires prosecutors to turn over most material when initially discovered, and a new training program on disclosure obligations.
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