Head of Brooklyn DA’s Gang Bureau fired for making insulting remarks

June 17, 2013 By Charisma L. Miller, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Deanna Rodriguez, the head of the Gang Bureau at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, has been fired for making racial and homophobic slurs. Rodriguez, who started working with the DA’s Office in 1985, reportedly called Counsel to D.A. Charles J. Hynes Lance Ogiste, an African-American, “the head n—-r.”

Rodriguez has been on suspension since March after being accused of addressing interns and paralegals and “faggots” and “dykes.” “When this issue first arose, Deanna Rodriguez was immediately suspended for 90 days without pay,” said Jerry Schmetterer, spokesman for the DA’s office.

In May, Rodriguez issued an apology to the Anti-Violence Project, an organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected communities.

“Certain words, should just never be used as what they stand for can be hurtful and detrimental to people in a particular group,” Rodriguez said in her written apology. “I humbly apologize for ever uttering any words of a derogatory nature offensive to the members of the LGBTQ community and vow to always be sensitive in the future with the words I use and those uttered in my presence.”

Further investigation continued during Rodriguez’s suspension and “after complete review of her conduct, [Rodriguez] was terminated effective immediately (as of June 14th),” Schmetterer said.

Head of the Gang Bureau for 16 years, Rodriguez was honored in 2012 by El Diario newspaper as one of the most outstanding women in the Hispanic community.

The acting head of the Gang Bureau is now Executive Assistant District Attorney Edward Carroll.