Meet the candidates for Suffolk County District Attorney

On November 2, Suffolk County residents will cast their ballots in the 2021 Suffolk County General Election, where they’ll have the chance to decide who they wish to have as their District Attorney. According to the Office of District Attorney, the Suffolk County D.A. “works on behalf of the residents of Suffolk County to investigate and prosecute violations of state and local criminal statutes that occur within our County. The District Attorney’s Office comprises more than 300 prosecutors, investigators and support staff who work tirelessly to serve justice, to protect victims, and to ensure safety for all Suffolk County residents.”

The following is a summation of the backgrounds, policies, perspectives, and endorsements of the two candidates for Suffolk County’s District Attorney, Tim Sini and Ray Tierney.

Tim Sini
Tim Sini is running for re-election after a first term.

Background
Timothy D. Sini, a Democrat, was elected as Suffolk County’s District Attorney on November 7, 2017, assuming office on January 1, 2018. Prior to his current position, Sini served as the 13th Suffolk County Police Commissioner (the youngest in the county’s history) and a federal prosecutor.

Sini took his bachelor's from American University, majoring in Political Science, and his master’s from Brooklyn Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor. At both institutions, Sini graduated magna cum laude.

He initially assumed the office of District Attorney after former D.A. Thomas J. Spota was indicted on charges of obstructing a federal investigation and witness tampering. On the night of November 7, 2017, as Sini received 62% of the vote against challenger Raymond Perini, he said the following of his victory: “Together we have ushered in a new era of criminal justice in Suffolk County, an era of integrity, fairness and doing the right thing. We are going to return the office to the honorable institution that it once was.”

As a young boy, Sini describes, he wanted to go into law enforcement, though ultimately chose law school (Brooklyn Law School, ‘05) with hopes of becoming a federal prosecutor. Out of college, Sini worked in corporate law in Manhattan and clerked for two federal judges, then became a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York in 2010. There, he worked for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, prosecuting gang-related killings, and the first federal case of individuals selling “bath salts,” also known as designer cathinones or synthetic stimulants. Before his designation as Police Commissioner, Sini served as the Assistant Deputy County Executive for Public Safety under Steve Bellone.

Sini took over at the Suffolk County Police Department after ex-Police Chief James Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison for assault and obstruction of justice. As Police Commissioner, Sini testified before the United States Senate and House of Representatives regarding MS-13 and successfully lobbied the Department of Justice for additional resources to combat the violent gang. Among these aids was a $500,000 grant, awarded to Suffolk County after then President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Suffolk County on two separate occasions.

Sini also served as a representative on the White House’s Office of Drug Control Policy New York/New Jersey Regional HIDTA Team (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas), where he assisted in creating strategies between public health and public safety agencies to reduce opioid overdoses in the region.

Platform
Sini states his mission as such: “To make the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office a national model, to serve justice in each and every case, and to make Suffolk County as safe as possible to live, work, and raise a family.” To serve this mission, Sini promises a number of reforms and initiatives with two goals in mind: “Protecting Suffolk” and “Criminal Justice Reform.”

One of Sini’s major priorities is to “eradicate gangs like MS-13” and includes a number of strategies aimed at preventing struggling youth from joining these gangs in the first place. The first of these programs, entitled “Life In America,” aims to give recent immigrant students a sense of life here in America and Suffolk County, while giving them “the tools they need to successfully transition into their new community.” A similar program partners the Brentwood, Wyandanch, and Bellport school districts with S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth, an organization specializing in youth gang violence prevention.

Additionally, Sini hopes to target drug dealers who cause overdose deaths and persecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Sini has advocated for a “death-by-dealer statute,” a law that would charge an individual with homicide if they sell an opiate-controlled substance to a person who later dies from its use.

To tackle the issue of human trafficking, during his first year as District Attorney, Sini partnered with the Suffolk County Police Department and the FBI to launch the Human Trafficking Investigation Unit. This initiative was created to “target and prosecute human traffickers, treat victims as victims – not criminals – and connect them to services, and raise general awareness of the issue and increase training for law enforcement.” Sini hopes to continue this program throughout his second term.

Sini aims to stop the lesser-known affair of environmental crime, an issue, Sini argues, especially potent to an island surrounded by water, and one that gets its drinking water “from two sole-source aquifers directly beneath our feet.” As Sini acknowledges, “Long Island and Suffolk County have been the victim of illegal dumping for decades, primarily stemming from construction sites in New York City, but also other waste locally. Instead of paying the cost to properly dispose of hazardous waste from construction sites, unscrupulous actors illegally truck their waste out to Suffolk County to attempt to secretly dump it in our parks, wetlands, forests, and even our literal front yards.” He said he aims to end such practices.

After being ushered into office following two corruption scandals, Sini hopes to reform the Office of District Attorney, stating, “If we truly want to reform the Suffolk County criminal justice system, we have to reform the District Attorney’s Office, and that’s why I ran.”

Sini hopes to continue to diversify the Office, one that previously “did not reflect the Suffolk County community. Less than 10% of the attorneys in the Office self-identified as persons of color.” As well, Sini plans to continue to digitize Office records, with hopes of creating “a better, more efficient case management system that would allow the advanced data analytics on cases the county deserves.”

Endorsements
Sini has been endorsed by the Coalition of Suffolk Police Unions, a broad organization that includes the Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association, Suffolk County Superior Officers Association, Suffolk County Detectives Association, Suffolk County Probation Officers Association, Suffolk County Detective Investigators, Suffolk County Police Conference, Suffolk County Deputy Sheriffs PBA and Suffolk County Corrections Officers Association.

Ray Tierney

Background
Born and raised in Suffolk County, Raymond A. Tierney has maintained he is “not a member of any political party,” instead running for Suffolk County District Attorney under “Republican and conservative lines.” Of his home county, Tierney has stated, “other than law school and college, I’ve lived in Suffolk County my whole life.”

Tierney attended Brown University, where he took his bachelor’s in History and English before receiving his Juris Doctor from St. John’s University School of Law in June of 1992. Tierney’s current position, before announcing his candidacy for Suffolk County D.A., was in the King’s County District Attorney’s Office, where he served as Executive Assistant District Attorney. In this position, Tierney oversaw the “Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, Crime Strategies Unit, and Body Worn Camera Unit” and was “responsible for long-term violent street gang investigation and prosecutions.”

Out of law school, Tierney came back home and worked as Assistant District Attorney at the Suffolk County D.A.’s Office. During his seven-year stretch in this position, Tierney participated in several state felony prosecutions “including homicides, kidnappings, arsons, violent sexual assaults, and murder.” He also worked as District Court Trial Supervisor where he “supervised over 30 entry level ADAs.”

In 2002, Tierney left his position at the District Attorney’s Office when he became an Associate at Shaub, Ahmuty, Citrin, & Spratt, L.L.P., managing cases for the litigation department of the firm. Soon after, Tierney returned to the Suffolk County D.A.’s Office as Assistant District Attorney, staying there for six years in that position.

Tierney then became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York. Here, Tierney “prosecuted violations of federal criminal law on behalf of the United States government… presented evidence to federal grand juries… met and coordinated with the Department of Justice regarding long-term international criminal prosecutions, international fugitives, and death penalty protocols… and debriefed the Attorney General on the status of MS-13 prosecution nationwide and in New York.”

Tierney has been the recipient of several honors from various legal and law enforcement agencies. These honors include being named Prosecutor of the Year twice by the Federal Law Enforcement Association “for the successful prosecution of several MS-13 members” and receiving the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office Distinguished Trial Advocacy Award “for successful trial prosecution in People v. Austin Offen and Constantine Chronis.”

Platform
Tierney has stated his mission as such: “To bring integrity, ethics, and independence to an office that desperately needs it.” In a conversation with PoliticsNY, when asked why he stepped up to run, Tierney retorted, “I’m running to change the culture in Suffolk County, to have a strong independent District Attorney who works for all the citizens of Suffolk County.”

To combat the prevalent issue of gangs in Suffolk County, Tierney aims to “establish a specific Gang Unit to prosecute violent street gangs, with individual ADA’s being assigned to specific street gangs.” As Tierney explains, the current treatment of gang violence can lead to instances dispersed among multiple bureaus within the D.A.’s Office; Tierney wants to change this, matching “gang members with all their illegal acts in one comprehensive indictment.”

Tierney plans to repeal bail reform, a practice which “eliminates cash bail and allows those who have been charged with misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies to go back on the street.” Tierney goes on to explain that “most of those who were released went on to commit horrible acts of murder, rape and violent assault.” Tierney has called this bail reform measure “disastrous.”

On September 18, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Less Is More Act, a measure that will prevent paroled convicts from being yet again imprisoned for minor technical violations, such as missing a curfew. The goal of the act is to prevent prison overcrowding, and will go into effect in March of 2022. Tierney aims to repeal the Less Is More Act, a measure that allows, as Tierney describes, parolees to continue to “use drugs and alcohol while out on the streets and commit a crime while on parole.”

To mitigate the issue of cyber crime, a practice which became more prevalent during the pandemic, Tierney hopes to establish an Identity Theft and Cyber Crimes Unit. Tierney says this program will specifically go after “those who sought to cheat the unemployment and other pandemic-related relief programs.”

He has also recognized the increasing worry of ransomware attacks, the practice of inputting malicious software into a computer system, whereby the malware threatens to publish or withhold access to personal data until the victim pays a ransom fee to the hacker. To alleviate this malevolent exercise, Tierney hopes to establish a Ransomware Unit within the District Attorney’s Office “to look out for possible, unannounced attacks on utilities, government entities, schools, universities and businesses.” Tierney would also create an “extortion hotline so that individuals and businesses under attack can obtain immediate help from law enforcement.”

Endorsements

Tierney has been endorsed by the Suffolk County GOP and Democratic Babylon Town Councilman DuWayne Gregory.

The 2021 Suffolk County General Election will take place on November 2, 2021. Early voting commences October 23 and lasts until October 31. For mail and in-person voting, residents must register by today, October 8. For any change-of-address requests, residents must inquire by October 13. A candidates list for the 2021 Suffolk County General Election can be found here.