The story is so bizarre that it’s nearly unbelievable. It started routinely enough on November 12, 1999, when Police Officer David Gonzales and his partner, both in uniform, responded to a gun job and encountered William Hodges, who fit the description and was confronted. During a search, Gonzales felt what seemed like a gun in Hodges’ pants leg and warned his partner. A struggle ensued as Hodges went for Gonzales’ gun. Hodges managed to get a round off from the officer’s gun striking Gonzales in the hip and leg. Hodges was subdued and collared and his own weapon, which fell out during the struggle, was recovered.
To this day, Dave Gonzalez, who has since been promoted to detective, experiences pain and walks with a limp from the gunshot wound. But that pain is nothing compared to what Blackburne’s abuse of power put him through with her lenient treatment of the criminal who shot him. Hodges was well known to the department, having been arrested several times before for robbery and assault. In spite of his criminal history, however, Blackburne bent over backwards to find a way to release him. Why she wanted to send this violent felon back into the community remains unclear. But release him she did, citing speedy-trial provisions.
On October 16, 2002, the day she cut him loose, hundreds of angry police officers joined me on the Queens Supreme Court steps to denounce her decision at a news conference. Queens DA Richard Brown immediately filed an appeal.
Hodges was then arrested on a DWI charge in January 2003 and again in July of that year for assaulting a police officer. Had he been incarcerated as he should have been, these crimes would not have occurred.
The story took another bizarre turn when Blackburne conceived, ordered and executed a plan to help a fugitive robbery suspect escape from her courtroom. Despite the objections of court officers, Blackburne ordered the suspect taken out in a judges-only elevator, enabling him to elude a detective who was about to pick him up for questioning.
Once again, she didn’t count on the PBA. We immediately filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct and held a news conference with court officers and detectives demanding Blackburne be removed from the bench.
In November 2004, DA Brown’s appeal succeeded in overturning Blackburne’s dismissal of the charges against Hodges. Eventually he was brought to trial, convicted and, on April 24, sentenced to 25 years in prison.
It took six years, five months and 12 days for justice to be served in this case. Usually, justice delayed is justice denied. Not in this case.
On Nov. 22, 2005, as a result of the PBA complaint, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, in a very rare decision, recommended Blackburne’s dismissal from the bench, saying "she placed herself above the law she is sworn to uphold and abused the power of her office.” Blackburne was suspended and a final decision on her future is pending.
These were not the first of Blackburne’s indiscretions. She first attracted notoriety when, as the chairperson of the New York City Housing Authority, she spent tens of thousands of dollars redecorating her office. Her pink leather couch became a symbol for wasting taxpayer dollars.
Obviously, the lesson was lost on her. But I’m sure she’s learned at least one thing by now: Never underestimate the resolve of the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
Pat Lynch
President