Yonkers Councilman Breen Says ‘Enough is Enough”
By Dan Murphy
The issue of Bail Reform in New York State continues to be a hot topic of debate, with both supporters and opponents of the measure demanding justice. Bail reform, which eliminates bail for many criminal charges and prohibits judges and prosecutors from having the discretion to demand bail for certain defendants, was passed last year as a part of the state budget, with no separate vote taken on it in the State Legislature, and became effective Jan. 1 of this year.
We recently ran a story from supporters of bail reform urging State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins not to make changes to bail reform, and leave the legislation as is.
Opponents of bail reform, which include law enforcement groups and police unions across the state, continue to receive a larger share of the media coverage.
The latest incident that one elected official says is related to the issue of bail reform occurred on March 9 in Yonkers, at 1:30 in the morning in the downtown waterfront part of the city. Yonkers police and fire departments and Empress Emergency Medical Services responded to the Saw Mill River Daylighting Park on New Main Street for a report of an overturned vehicle.
Upon arrival, first responders located a black 2007 Acura TSX sedan on its roof inside the park and an unresponsive 23-year-old female victim with severe injuries; she was transported to a local trauma center but was pronounced deceased shortly thereafter. Police cordoned off the scene and initiated a criminal investigation, but the driver of the vehicle was not found at the scene.
Detectives and accident investigators from the Major Case Squad, Crime Scene Unit and Traffic Unit responded to the scene and interviewed subjects and witnesses, reviewed surveillance video, processed forensic evidence, and reconstructed the accident. Investigation thus far has yielded that the vehicle was driven by an alleged intoxicated operator who lost control of it and crashed in the park, striking the victim.
The operator then fled the scene. Police later apprehended him without incident at his residence and subsequent to further investigation, he was placed under arrest. Due to the hours that passed between the accident and the individual’s arrest, a blood -alcohol test was not administered.
The operator of the vehicle has been identified as Pilar Hilario Dominguez-Leon, a 44-year-old resident of Yonkers. He was charged with one count of first-degree vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of an incident that results in death without reporting it, both felonies. The case is being prosecuted by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, and the identity of the victim is being withheld pending family notifications.
Dominguez-Leon was released without bail, resulting in a call from Yonkers City Councilman Mike Breen to amend the recently passed Bail Reform Law in Albany. Breen, who is the republican minority leader on the Yonkers City Council, introduced a resolution, “condemning the failed Bail Elimination Act of 2019, which has eliminated judicial discretion from the process.”
“Due to the failed Bail Elimination Act of 2019, the accused (Dominguez-Leon) was released without bail,” said Breen in a statement. “Enough is enough! While Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Sen. Shelley Mayer, Assemblyman Nader Sayegh and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow have sat back and watched this crisis unfold, it has now reached Yonkers. Our state leaders have not put our safety first and that must change today.
“This person is accused of ending a life then leaving the scene and hiding. If the accused would not even stay at the scene while the Yonkers police and fire departments, along with other emergency medical services, attempted to save this young woman’s life, why would we be comfortable that he will show up to court?”
Breen continued: “Those that touted this law as still protecting its citizens by omitting violent crimes were wrong and this is a very unfortunate example of that. I pray the victim and her family get the justice they deserve. Keeping this law as is puts us all at risk and now Yonkers residents are experiencing the failure of this law firsthand. Plainly, this is not acceptable.”
Law enforcement leaders from Westchester have traveled to Albany to try and get changes made to bail reform this year, before state lawmakers leave for summer recess once the budget is passed. One comparison frequently made are the bail reforms in New York to those in New Jersey, with law enforcement officials in New York claiming that in New Jersey, Judges have the discretion to consider whether the accused poses a threat to public safety in deciding whether to hold them.
Giving judges more power to decide about issuing bail in certain circumstances is one of the changes to bail reform under consideration by the governor, Stewart-Cousins and Heastie.
Speaker Heastie is said to be reluctant to make any changes to the current bail reforms, and even if some changes are made, law enforcement leaders in Westchester are concerned that any changes will be “cosmetic” and not truly address the issues of releasing persons who continue to commit crimes, or are a danger to society.
