2 - 9/14/18 James Liander - Bureau Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau, QDA Office Artwork

“Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” - “Let's Break The Silence Together”

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. In order to track bad actors in borough district attorney's offices and other law enforcement agencies throughout NYC who refuse to investigate, arrest and prosecute crime perpetrators, we need to document the blowback and victim-blaming that women often hear from both the police and the district attorneys when we use the criminal legal system to attain justice. The Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz is refusing to address the misconduct of her staffers and members of NYPD. These are telephone conversations between me and high-level members of the Queens District Attorney's office of Melinda Katz. PO Miguel Delacruz is an active member of NYPD. He committed multiple felonies and misdemeanors against me. PO Delacruz unlawfully surveilled our intimate encounter, threatened me, disseminated multiple video files, concealed the physical evidence. The Queens District Attorney's Office of Melinda Katz is not only refusing to prosecute PO Miguel Delacruz but is refusing to initiate a special proceeding in The Supreme Court, Queens County, Criminal Term, before the Honorable Joseph A. Zayas, Administrative Judge of Queens County, Criminal Term, seeking the appointment of a special district attorney. I’m so thankful to have Maya, Larry, Priscilla, Adam, Rocco, Molly, David, Diego and other reporters working on my story. I am forever grateful for the tremendous support from my family, friends, my attorney, Joe Murray, and his whole team. "Justice Delayed is Justice Denied" - " Let's Break The Silence Together " Melinda Katz NY1 Debate, October 23, 2019 and Melinda Katz Twitter, April 8, 2021

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“Justice Delayed is Justice Denied” - “Let's Break The Silence Together”

2 - 9/14/18 James Liander - Bureau Chief of the Public Integrity Bureau, QDA Office

April 08, 2021 • Valentina Veleva • Season 1 • Episode 2

NYPD Sergeant Cliff Nieves investigation and arrest

Members of the Queens District Attorney clearly mishandled Valentina’s case and obviously never had any intention of arresting Delacruz. Rather, they were just stringing Valentina along, using her as a straw-victim to continue their investigation of Sergeant Cliff Nieves, who was assigned to Valentina’s case. This was essentially confirmed in a telephone call between Valentina and Public Integrity Bureau Chief, James Liander.

Bureau Chief of Public Integrity Unit, James Liander:

Sergeant Cliff Nieves was arrested on September 12, 2018. On September 14, 2018, Valentina contacted Bureau Chief James Liander who confirmed to Valentina that, “that’s one of the reasons why we had to delay things. We we we handled his case, and we were aware we couldn’t interfere with the case that you just read about [Cliff Nieves] by doing something and then have him be the officer in charge of your case. It it’ll be transferred to somebody else. But we couldn’t, we knowing what we knew about him we couldn’t tell you, and we that we had to make sure that we took this case down and then we’re gonna deal with your case. It it’s an issue that would’ve made your case worse if we went forward with it. It was the same unit that was going after Nieves that was handling your complaint”

In essence, Chief Liander confirmed that nothing was done with her case up until September 14, 2018, but he further stated to Valentina that, “I just spoke with somebody from victim services also … yea, I explained to them that we intend ta trying to move forward on this thing and they are going to see what they can do to help you.”

So, after stringing Valentina along from March 14, 2017 to September 14, 2018, unnecessarily delaying the investigation and arrest of Delacruz, the Queens District Attorney’s Office jeopardized the integrity and availability of the evidence because memories fade, and information is lost.

Joseph W. Murray

Attorney for Ms. Valentina Veleva