Boroughwide

Gonzalez asks Brooklyn court to dismiss more than 3,500 marijuana cases

July 28, 2021 Editorial Staff
Share this:

From Brooklyneagle.com

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez on Tuesday asked the court to dismiss 3,578 marijuana cases that remained on the docket, mainly because of open warrants. 

With this move, nearly all marijuana cases in Brooklyn have been dismissed. Since the State Legislature legalized marijuana in March, the DA’s Office dismissed about 240 active cases in which marijuana was charged, while marijuana charges that are included in felony cases are being dismissed in the course of court proceedings.   
 
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “For too long, criminalization of marijuana has disproportionately impacted young people and communities of color whose members made up about 90 percent of those arrested. These arrests ruined the lives of thousands of people over the years, saddling many with criminal convictions that prevented them from pursuing opportunities in life. That was why, in Brooklyn, we stopped prosecuting possession cases in 2014 and went further in 2017, declining prosecution of nearly all smoking cases as well. A year later, we also moved to dismiss warrant cases.
 
“I am gratified that the New York Legislature legalized marijuana earlier this year in a bill that included an automatic expungement provision. Since its passage, my office has moved to dismiss open cases and stated we will no longer bring pending marijuana charges before grand or petit juries. Today, I asked the court to dismiss over 3,500 warrant cases that remained in the system, effectively clearing the Brooklyn docket from these vestiges of previous models of policing and prosecution,” he added.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

Gonzalez appeared before Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Keisha Espinal and requested that 3,578 pending marijuana cases be dismissed and that the court vacate any relevant arrest warrants, judgments of conviction and guilty pleas related to those cases.  
 
Gonzalez’s predecessor, the late Ken Thompson, stopped prosecuting marijuana possession cases in Brooklyn in 2014. In 2017, District Attorney Gonzalez, as the acting DA, went further and declined to prosecute nearly all marijuana smoking cases as well. As a result, marijuana arrests in Brooklyn, which numbered in the thousands every year earlier in that decade, had slowed to a trickle by 2018.

In September 2018, Gonzalez moved to vacate more than 3,000 summons warrants for marijuana possession and dismissed the underlying cases. In December of that same year, he moved to dismiss over 1,400 criminal court warrants. His office also initiated a program to erase and seal old marijuana convictions.  
 
Currently, only eight cases that include marijuana charges remain in Brooklyn Criminal Court; they involve allegations of driving while impaired. In Supreme Court, marijuana charges that are included in more serious felony cases will be dismissed in the course of court proceedings and those charges will not be brought before any jury. 
 
The District Attorney thanked the Office of Court Administration, especially Antonio Diaz, Acting Chief Clerk of New York City Criminal Court, and Charles Blaha, Acting Borough Chief Clerk of Brooklyn Criminal Court, for facilitating the dismissals.

Subscribe to our newsletters


Leave a Comment


Leave a Comment