Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz addresses the Rockaway Beach Civic Association. Photo by John Schilling

The Rockaway Beach Civic Association (RBCA) had a special guest speaker at the Knights of Columbus on Thursday, Oct. 9, as the group welcomed Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who made an appearance to offer updates on ongoing cases and answer questions about growing quality-of-life concerns on the Rockaway peninsula and all across Queens County.

A former assemblywoman, city councilwoman, and borough president, Katz assumed the office of Queens District Attorney in January 2020. Since then, Katz’s accomplishments have included efforts to combat gang violence, crack down on human trafficking, and remove illegal firearms from the streets over the last five years and counting.

RBCA President Bridget Klapinski and Vice President Cheryl Hauk first invited Katz to attend a meeting after seeing her at a different meeting earlier this year. Since then, Katz said her special assistant and frequent Rockaway representative, Dan Brown, made sure that she would eventually come to one of RBCA’s meetings.

“I’m happy to be here tonight,” Katz said in opening remarks. “I always remember the Rockaways very dearly in my heart just from the fights we’ve gone through together,” she added, referencing her six-year tenure as Queens Borough President and referring to the fight for permanent NYC Ferry service on the peninsula following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. “I feel like we’ve been through a lot together.”

Since assuming office as Queens District Attorney in 2020, Katz says both she and the office itself have grown, explaining how all the bail and discovery laws had changed when she first took over the job and recalling how the world “shut down” just three months later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these challenges, Katz said the office has persevered, boasting 60,000 arrests and 47,000 arraignments each year, including thousands of gun cases, across 900 employees: 400 lawyers, 400 support staffers, and 100 investigative detectives.

One ongoing issue particularly pertinent to Rockaway locals is the influx of illegal scooters and mopeds throughout the community, many of which have been linked to crimes ranging from reckless driving to stealing upon being seized by police.

As this issue began to grow more and more prominent across the borough, Katz said she felt compelled to tackle it, not understanding how they could address violent crime with more ease than illegal scooters.

“Why is that [a] problem we can’t tackle?” Katz recalled saying at the time. “We catch murderers; we get gun traffickers; we have people selling narcotics on the street…so why can’t we handle the scooters?”

As a result, the Queens District Attorney’s office began working directly with the NYPD to seize parked illegal scooters from the streets, with Katz joking, “You can drive through Queens on a scooter but don’t stop for dinner because I’m taking your scooter!”

Since then, Katz says the office has removed over 1500 illegal scooters off the street in Queens County.

In addition, Katz was keen to mention the new bureaus she helped create within the Queens District Attorney’s office over the last six years, including the Hate Crimes Bureau, the Conviction Integrity Unit, and the “Gang Unit,” also known as the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau (VCE).

Katz credited the VCE for conducting a long-term investigation at the Redfern Houses in Far Rockaway a few years ago that resulted in the arrests of 22 gang members in one day. She also noted a more recent gang takedown in Southeast Queens as the result of a follow-up to a previous takedown.

According to Katz, her office arrested 12 gang members last month in connection to a previous gang takedown in 2023. At the time, Katz and then-NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell partnered on the arrest of 33 gang members in a 151-count indictment – one of the largest gang takedowns in the office’s history. This takedown included murder charges for the 2019 shooting death of 14-year-old Aamir Griffin, who was playing basketball at the Baisley Park Houses when a gang member “mistook him for a rival.” Last month’s arrests included gang members who had emerged to fill the void left behind by the previous 33-gang-member takedown in 2023.

“We are now following up on the things that we did many years ago,” Katz explained. “We are very focused on guns; we are very focused on gangs.”

Another recent takedown, according to Katz, came just last month when a six-month investigation led to the seizure of 77 firearms in Rosedale after undercover officers purchased the weapons across eight separate purchases.

“They would have sold to our children,” Katz added. “But they didn’t because of the work we all did on that.”

Aside from the Queens District Attorney’s focus on violent crime, Katz also touched on the Merchants Trespass Program, an initiative she started where participating businesses can contact police when an individual engages in disruptive, dangerous, or illegal behavior in their establishment. The responding officers then issue a trespass notice and warn the individuals that their return to the location could result in their arrest.

In reflecting on the success of that program, Katz noted how it has worked for one of Rockaway’s CVS Pharmacy locations and mentioned her ongoing work with both of Rockaway’s precincts, the 100th Precinct on the western end and the 101st Precinct on the eastern end, to crack down on shoplifting.

“We’re going to try to help those numbers for them to use the trespass affidavit,” Katz added. “But we [do] get them help!”

In explaining the program further, Katz also explained how it’s mutually beneficial, giving the retail store owners “more control” while also providing the opportunity for the trespassers to get mental health treatment services.

“We vet them for what they might need in order to not come back to the same place,” Katz explained. “Let’s face it, if you come back to the same place again after you’re served with a trespass affidavit and you know you’re going to get rearrested, chances are good [that] you might need some help, and so we help.”

In its entirety, Katz said the program has been largely successful, with the Queens District Attorney’s office issuing about 1400 trespass affidavits across Queens and only 100 of those resulted in arrest upon the trespassers returning to the store. At the same time, Katz also acknowledged that it’s not a perfect remedy for shoplifting and other retail crime, noting that these affidavits are only tied to one location and the trespassers can still go elsewhere.

Katz also credited Rockaway’s legislators, namely NYS Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato, for their assistance in changing the bail laws, which now allow her office to request bail after the second shoplifting offense. Before this change, shoplifting didn’t qualify for bail at all.

As the meeting continued, Katz also addressed other issues, including online scams and squatters. 

Regarding online scams, Katz summed it up in her “best Queens accent,” saying, “Don’t give anybody ya money!” 

As for squatters claiming rights to homeowners’ properties, Katz reiterated that “if you go [through] the front door illegally, you can’t gain a right to be there,” adding that it’s nothing more than “trespassing” and her office has been successful in its efforts to remove squatters from people’s homes.

In closing remarks, Katz thanked the RBCA both for the invitation and their ongoing advocacy.

“It does not go unnoticed,” Katz said. “I appreciate the leadership, and I appreciate all the membership.”