Three head into DA race homestretch Katz faces challenges from Mossa and Grasso for top prosecutor post

by Michael Gannon Senior News Editor

The three-way race for Queens district attorney features firstterm Democrat Melinda Katz defending the seat against challengers Michael Mossa, an attorney running on the Republican and Conservative tickets; and George Grasso, a retired supervisory criminal court judge and former NYPD cop and deputy commissioner whom Katz defeated in the Democratic primary and now is on the Public Safety Party line.

Katz, a former legislator and Queens borough president, touts ongoing initiatives she began since taking office as reasons to re-elect her, pointing to drops in murder and shooting statistics.

“The best campaign is doing your job, right?” Katz said in an interview this week. “I do my job every day. We have a lot going on right now ... and I think the best way to campaign is by showing the people of Queens that I’m doing my job.”

Katz said her emphasis on guns and gang activity has shown tangible results.

“It’s working,” she said. “Murder is down 8 percent citywide and 58 percent in Queens County. Shootings are down 27 percent in the city and 38 percent in Queens County. So I think our initiatives are getting guns off the street. Traffickers from the South are getting arrested and we’re convicting them.”

She also pointed to more than 4,000 domestic violence cases that have been opened by her office since Jan. 1, many originating through community outreach events.

And she said her office has managed 41,000 arrests, 32,000 arraignments “and has 2,000 to 3,000 gun cases at the same time.”

Both Mossa and Grasso have pointed out that overall crime is up in the borough, and have hammered Katz over what they say is a lack of enforcement of quality-of-life issues, particularly shoplifting.

Katz said the Merchants Business Improvement Program, initiated as a pilot program back in 2021, also is working. It allows police to issue trespass summonses over repeat offenses in stores such as shoplifting, for which a person can be arrested.

“That’s not replacing arrests for shoplifting, any robberies or assaults or other crimes,” she said. “I do the job with the laws as they are. I don’t use it as an excuse to not do my job.”

Among the gifts Katz would like from the state Legislature this holiday season is an adjustment of disclosure laws that would allow for “substantial compliance in good faith” when prosecutors have to hand their evidence over to defense counsel. She also wants stronger penalties for driving without a license.

“A license is not a suggestion,” Katz said, saying that very often when a motor vehicle crash results in criminal charges, it involves someone with no license or a suspended one.

Mossa is from Howard Beach with his law office in Ozone Park. He told the Chronicle that those he has spoken with on the campaign trail are as displeased as he is with Katz’s prosecution of lower-level crimes — though he did acknowl- edge the gains in addressing domestic violence.

“The feedback I’m getting from the general public is people are disgusted, quite frankly, with allowing shoplifting,” Mossa said. “I do some criminal defense, so I know my way around the Queens criminal court. Other than domestic violence, nothing is prosecuted seriously. That’s unacceptable. Unless there’s a murder, of course that would be prosecuted. But not shoplifting. Repeat offenders are not in jail. It’s appalling.” Mossa vowed to make qualityof-life crimes a priority.

“Middle-class people would know I have their backs,” he said. “And when there are repeat offenders who should not be on the street, I’m not going to go attack the gun like most politicians in New York. That’s a criminal using a gun who should have been in jail.” He said it can be too late when prosecutors and the courts wait to act on known repeat offenders until a serious crime.

“DAs including Katz say, ‘Now we’re going to lock him up.’ My question is why didn’t it happen in continued on page 20