The family of Eusebio De La Rosa has been fuming because no one has ever been charged in his 2011 murder, even though witnesses were set to testify against a key suspect.
The family is right to be angry. The bigger problem is that even if the prosecutor filed charges it wouldn’t guarantee a conviction — especially in the borough where the murder took place: The Bronx.
Bronx DA Robert Johnson is infamous for his reluctance to seek indictments. More than that, the chart above shows that even when he does take a case to trial, his record in winning guilty verdicts is dismal.
That only means more pain for families like De La Rosa’s. As The Post’s Brad Hamilton reported last month, the 54-year-old cook was beaten viciously and robbed, reportedly by two young thugs, as he headed to work at 5:30 a.m. on July 4. He never regained consciousness and died two days later.
Cops rounded up two witnesses who say they saw the attack, and three others with key information. But Johnson never charged anyone, and the key suspect, Angel Cruz, was set free. An aide to the DA says the case was weak, citing “inconsistencies” and “recantations.” But given the huge gaps in Johnson’s record, it’s logical to wonder.
Since at least 2000, Office of Court Administration annual reports show Johnson’s felony-conviction rate lagging far behind that of his fellow DAs elsewhere in this city.
In 2011, for example, Johnson won 73 out of 157 jury verdicts, for a 46 percent success rate. That same year, all the other boroughs drew guilty verdicts in 68 percent of the cases — half again as well as Johnson did. In 2009, the gap was even wider: The other prosecutors won convictions 75 percent more often than he did.
And he’s lagged DAs in the rest of the state by similar margins.
Johnson’s record might be understandable if he chose to prosecute weak cases more than other prosecutors. In fact, he turns away cases three times as often as other DAs in the city: In 2011, he declined to follow through on 23 percent of all misdemeanor and felony arrests — a rate more than three times higher than the other boroughs’. Maybe Johnson’s aware of his poor success rate, and so picks only the most winnable cases.
If he were squeezing out more guilty pleas, leaving only the toughest cases for trial, there might be something to say for his record. But again, his plea rate has been about the same as elsewhere in the city — and lower than in the rest of the state.
No wonder he’s been at odds with the cops and Mayor Bloomberg, who’s blasted Johnson’s record: “If you want to bring crime back to New York,” the mayor railed, “this is probably a good way to do it.”
Another Johnson aide cites a backlog of cases and insufficient resources to explain the poor results. But that doesn’t account for his poor showing compared to DAs in places with similar demographics. And it’s sure not likely to satisfy the countless victims in The Bronx stewing over what they rightfully see as a lack of justice on their streets.