DA sworn in for fifth term

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown was sworn in last week to his fifth full term. New York State Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Eng administered the oath. Among those in attendance were colleagues, friends and family, including Brown’s wife, Rhoda; two of their children, Todd and Lynn; and his two granddaughters, Leah and Alana.
“Since 1991, I have had the privilege of serving as the District Attorney for Queens County and look forward to continuing to work to improve the lives of its 2.2 million residents,” said Brown, who first took office on June 1, 1991, when then-Governor Mario M. Cuomo appointed him the interim Queens District Attorney to succeed John J. Santucci. At the time, Brown was serving as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department - the State’s second-highest court. He was elected to his first full four-year term as District Attorney at the general election held in November 1991 and was re-elected at the 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 general elections.
During his new term, Brown will become the longest serving District Attorney in Queens County when he surpasses the record set by District Attorney Benjamin Downey more than a century ago.
Under Brown’s leadership, the District Attorney’s Office has attained an extraordinary reputation as one of the finest prosecutors’ offices in the state, and, in 2007, once again leads the city in crime reduction.
Brown has spent nearly his entire legal career in public service. He is a past president of the New York State District Attorneys Association and a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Queens County Bar Association, among others.