I wouldn't call that being a progressive, or liberal, or even thoughtful.
Here's more on Rice, she sounds like a liberal bull dog, a go-getter, someone with a spine unlike the Congresswoman I voted for every year when I lived in S.F.
Rice was elected Nassau County District Attorney in 2005, winning by 7,500 votes to become the first female to hold the position. She defeated 31-year incumbent Denis Dillon, who had generally won reelection easily, even after switching his affiliation from Democratic to Republican in 1989. Rice was the first serious opponent that Dillon had faced since his first run in 1974.[5]
Rice was re-elected in 2009 and 2013.
Tenure and issues
Jesse Friedman case
In 2010, Rice ordered the review of a 1987 case in which Arnold Friedman and his son, Jesse, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing young boys in their Great Neck, Long Island home. Rice formed a panel of outside experts – including the Innocence Project’s Barry Scheck – to examine whether or not Jesse Friedman had wrongfully confessed. In a 172-page report released in July 2013, investigators found that Friedman had not been wrongfully convicted.[35]
Drunken and drugged driving
In 2006, Rice, the "state's toughest DWI prosecutor,"[6] declared her first major policy initiative to be an “assault on the drunk driving epidemic.” She lowered the blood-alcohol level at which you could take a plea bargain,[7] supported Leandra’s Law, and charged with murder some drunk drivers who killed their victims.[8]
Reform efforts
In September 2011, Rice’s office arrested seven students after uncovering an SAT cheating ring on Long Island.[9] When this case led to the discovery of a wider-spread cheating scandal, Rice worked with the College Board, who administers the test, to update security standards to halt cheating in the future. This effort sparked other test administrators, like that which gives the ACT, to update their standards as well.[10]
Rice has also received credit for teen education programs geared towards cyber bullying, drug use, texting and dangerous driving.[11][12][13][14]
In 2007, Rice’s office, Nassau County and Hempstead police led a counter-assault on Terrace Avenue, a major drug haven and crime-ridden street in Long Island’s Hempstead Village. Through a combination of zero-tolerance enforcement for repeat and violent offenders, and social-service based jail diversion for nonviolent and first time offenders, crime has been reduced in the area.[15]
In 2008, following the trampling death of a Walmart employee at one of the retailer’s Black Friday sales events, Rice encouraged Walmart to upgrade its security protocols at its nearly 100 New York stores.[16]
In 2012, Rice came out in favor of decriminalizing small amounts of “plain view” marijuana.[17] Rice has also supported efforts to allow some citizens to seal prior low-level, non-violent convictions in the hopes of improving their chances of obtaining employment.[18]
Rice was chosen by Governor Andrew Cuomo to be a member of the Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response, a panel tasked with investigating the failures of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) following Hurricane Sandy of October 2012. The panel recommended that LIPA be replaced by a private, investor-owned company and that the Public Service Commission, which has regulation authority, be given more power to penalize and fine poor-performing utility companies.
Rice supports the “Raise the Age NY” initiative to treat non-violent teen offenders as juveniles in the criminal justice system.[19]
Guns, gangs, and violent crime
Kathleen Rice at a press conference, announcing the arrest of four ticket vending machine scammers (2013)
Rice implemented gun buy-back programs in some of the county’s most crime-plagued areas, which removed more than 2,000 guns from the streets.[20] She also spoke out in favor of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s gun control legislation,[21] and she created the office’s first ever gun prosecution unit.[22] Rice announced in early 2011 a major prosecution of 9 gun dealers and gun store employees arrested by police in an undercover operation investigating alleged illegal assault weapons.[23] This was the second arrest for Martin Tretola, one of the gunshop owners. He was previously arrested on firearms related violations in 2007. Subsequently, in 2012, a federal jury delivered a verdict rejecting the charges of Nassau County and District Attorney Rice for the 2007 arrest and awarded Tretola 3 million dollars in compensatory damages and 2 million dollars in punitive damages.[24] This judgment was later reduced to 1.3 million dollars in total upon appeal.[25]
Questions on Rice’s early prosecution cases
The Kings County district attorney’s prosecution of Antowine Butts for double homicide imploded and ended in an acquittal in 2000, but not before Butts spent two years in a Rikers Island jail cell. After the case unraveled, Butts alleged that he was a victim of prosecutorial misconduct in a civil rights lawsuit that was settled with New York City.
Among those named in that suit: Kathleen Rice, the architect of the case against Butts. Despite that high profile, Rice has largely escaped attention — including during the current campaign — for starting her career in an office in which prosecutors are alleged to have put some innocent people behind bars with coerced confessions, bogus witness statements, coached lineup identifications and other tactics.[26]
In April 2013, Rice announced the arrest of 18 members of the “Rollin’ 60’s” gang, an “ultra-violent” subset of the Crips. Rice charged these defendants with crimes ranging from attempted murder of a police officer, to assault and robbery, to gun and drug sales.[27]
Public corruption
Among those Rice has charged and convicted of corruption include a deputy police commissioner,[28] a Long Beach City Council member,[29] former Nassau County legislators,[30] and several town building department employees.[31]
Rice in 2013
In July 2013, Kathleen Rice was appointed by Governor Cuomo to be one of three co-chairs of the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption. The work of the commission is currently ongoing.[32]
Rice formed Nassau’s first-ever Medicaid and public assistance fraud unit, which has since secured millions of dollars in restitution for Nassau taxpayers.[33]
DA's Office gender pay gap and part-time employees
Rice has reformed the recruiting, hiring and promotional practices of her office. She eliminated a gender pay gap that had previously been greater than 30%. Rice developed an aimed at offering flex-and part-time work schedules to those needing to care for a family member or a personal situation. Half of the attorneys and management in Rice’s office are women.[34]
Jesse Friedman case
In 2010, Rice ordered the review of a 1987 case in which Arnold Friedman and his son, Jesse, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing young boys in their Great Neck, Long Island home. Rice formed a panel of outside experts – including the Innocence Project’s Barry Scheck – to examine whether or not Jesse Friedman had wrongfully confessed. In a 172-page report released in July 2013, investigators found that Friedman had not been wrongfully convicted.[35]
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