Chair Brooks-Powers questions early pretrial suppression hearings and data

In the piece you published in the New York Law Journal, you emphasize the importance of conducting pretrial suppression hearings early in the proceedings because they bring information to light that spurs settlement talks.

What specific steps have you taken to ensure that pretrial hearings happen earlier in the life of a case?

And do you have data on whether these hearings are actually occurring earlier?

So the example that showed that this was a very helpful way of resolving cases early was what they did in Queens.

So Queens was the only county when I was the administrative judge there, which didn't wait until the trial date to do suppression hearings.

And so we use that example because what happens in those hearings is the judge gets an opportunity to hear the police testify, to get a real sense of what the case is about.

And so it's a really important and fertile opportunity for the judge to see the case, for the district attorneys to see the case, for the defense attorney to see the case.

And oftentimes after a hearing, a case might get resolved.

So we always thought, why wait till the end of right before trial?

And let's.

start this litigation right then.

And so as part of the initiative, we've admonished, directed, cajoled,

pushed the administrative judges to get their judges to hold hearings well before trial.

And the stats that we received, I have them here.

I don't want to waste two minutes looking for them.

But I will say that I think probably the number of hearings in most of the counties has doubled from the time that we issued that the initiative started.

Thank you for that.

And we think that's important because those also, I think, are probably also responsible for the increase in the dispositions that we're receiving.

And when you receive a disposition, that's, you know, one less defendant on Rikers Island, one less accused on Rikers Island.

Thank you, Judge.