NYC NOW - October 2, 2024 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

WNYC’s Samantha Max gives a quick recap of Mayor Adams’ day in court. Plus, while Adams' private lawyers go to bat for him against criminal charges, the mayor is building the city’s legal defense team. And finally, New York City is facing hundreds of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse in juvenile jails. WNYC’s David Furst and Bahar Ostadan talk about the allegations.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenei Pierre. Federal prosecutors say they're likely to bring additional charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. That comes just days after Adams pleaded not guilty to multiple corruption charges following the unsealing of a sprawling 57-page indictment. The mayor was back in court Wednesday morning and WMYC's Samantha Max was there too. She joins me now for a quick recap. All right, Sam, what happened in court today? So today was a conference where Adams' attorney and prosecutors were going over all kinds of scheduling things and basically just kind of figuring out what happens next in the case.

But it was really like the first hint at what to expect in terms of both the legal strategy for both sides, but also the tone that they're going to take. Yeah. And I mentioned that prosecutors are trying to bring. additional charges against the mayor. Any idea what those charges are going to be? We don't know, but what we do know is that prosecutors say they've been gathering evidence since the summer of 2021, all kinds of communications, business records, things like that. So we'll have to see what happens. But we have seen in prior reporting that they might be looking into relationships between the mayor and other countries beyond just Turkey. So I think that is the thing

to really keep an eye on. And prosecutors also added that there are likely more people to be charged in this case. When can we expect those names to become public? They would not give a timeline on when this investigation is going to wrap up, but we know there are various other people referenced in the indictment who aren't named, who could potentially be charged. And then we also know that there are various other members of Adam Circle whose homes have been raided or who have served subpoenas. So we'll also be looking to see if any of those people could face charges. But so far, no one else has been accused of wrongdoing. A lot of question marks in the air still right now, Sam.

What's next? The mayor is expected to be back in court at the end of the month where his attorney, he has asked for one of the charges to be dropped. And he also wants the courts to look into this allegation that he's making that prosecutors are leaking information to the press. So that will all be discussed at this next court date. And then from there, in the coming months, each side will be taken. turning over evidence, that that's supposed to all be done around December. And then there will be a trial. The mayor is asking for the trial to happen in March because he wants this all to be wrapped up

before the primaries really get going. The prosecution has asked for May, so we'll see if they meet somewhere in the middle. That's WMYC's Samantha Max. While Mayor Adams' private lawyers go to bat for him against criminal charges, the mayor is building the city's legal defense team. WNYC's Michelle Bocanegra has more. Mayor Adams says he wants Muriel Good to Fond to be the city's next corporation council. That's the city's top lawyer. She's been acting corporation counsel since Sylvie Hines Raddx resigned earlier this year.

Meanwhile, he's tapping Allison Stoddard to be his chief counsel after Lisa Zornberg quit last month. Adams' announcements come amid questions about his legal trouble as becoming a distraction. Corporation counsel is functioning. These entities do not disappear from mayor to mayor to mayor. This is the permanent infrastructure of an amazing city that can operate no matter what happens. Randy Mastrow, the mayor's previous nominee for the city's top lawyer, withdrew himself from consideration after city council pushback. New York City is facing hundreds of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse and juvenile. jails. More on that after the break. 425 New Yorkers are suing the city, saying that when they were

children, juvenile jail employees sexually abuse them. Some of the allegations go as far back as the 1960s. They're being brought now because of a law that allows people to sue over allegations of gender-based violence even after the statute of limitations has expired. WMYC's Bahar Osteadan interviewed former detainees. She talked with my colleague David First. And we should note, this conversation will contain some discussion of sexual abuse. Bahar, tell us about these lawsuits. So this is the latest batch, 168 filed lawsuits yesterday. And it is under this law called the Gender Motivated Violence Act.

It created a two-year window for people to sue from abuse many years ago. That window is open until March 1st of next year, 2025. It's not the only law of this kind, a similar law existed for, Rikers, more than 700 women sued last year under that law. Well, tell us about these jails. What are former detainees saying happened there? So the sort of ecosystem of juvenile jails in New York City has changed over time, right? There used to be several juvenile jails, one called Spofford in the Bronx, where actually

Mayor Eric Adams was once jailed as a kid himself. Now there are only two jails, one in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and one in the South Bronx, Around 200 young people are jailed there in total now. They're run by the city's administration for children's services, which is sort of the city's child welfare system for those who don't know. Attorneys say these jails are ridden with corruption and a culture of secrecy that has protected abusers in these jails for years. It was just last year, actually, that an employee was arrested for sexually abusing a teenager. The former detainees in these lawsuits are alleging abuse at the hands of the court. employees at varying levels. We could talk more about that. Well, you reported that seven lawsuits named one man, a juvenile counselor at several jails. Tell us about him. That's right. So seven men and

women named one employee named Tony Simmons. He went by Tyson in their lawsuits. He was a staffer who was responsible for transporting detainees to and from court. They say he sexually assaulted them in that transport van, in parking garages of courthouses, in courthouse elevators. Here's one former detainee I spoke to last week, Amina Carter. She was jailed at age 15 on prostitution charges. She'd just run away from home. They don't care. You're a throwaway when you're a black or a Spanish prostitute runaway.

Nobody cares about you. You don't care about you. So why would we care about you? And that's the culture there. Simmons worked at these jails for 16 years, and eventually he was sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting and raping two 15-year-olds and one 16-year-olds. Now, these lawsuits allege assaults that he has not been criminally charged for. I should say we could not reach Simmons for comment. This isn't the first time you have reported on these jails.

Are there other issues? That's right. I reported last year on a sort of staff smuggling network where staffers at all levels are bringing in cash, drugs. raser blades tucked into wads of chewing gum held in people's mouths. Actually, just yesterday, four employees at one of these jails pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Now, officials got a legal exemption also earlier this year to start using classrooms as jail cells with teens sleeping on the ground due to overcrowding. We'll definitely continue tracking what's happening at these sites. That's WMYC's Bahar Ostenon, talking with my colleague, David First.

Can the Mets advance to the next round of the Major League Baseball playoffs? Well, that'll be the big, looming question Wednesday night when they take on the Brewers in Milwaukee. Mets fans are buzzing these days. The team just barely made the playoffs, qualifying in a comeback win on the last day of their regular season. They went on the beat Milwaukee in game one of the playoffs Tuesday night in another comeback victory. While the Mets are one-win away from facing the Phillies in the next round, if they lose, that'll set up a winner take-all game three Thursday in Milwaukee. Good luck, guys.

Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.