The office of lame-duck Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes wants to prove he’s no bigot — and plans to call on a special prosecutor to probe a recently canned assistant DA for allegedly forging a racist e-mail exchange between the DA and a former judge, The Post has learned.
Hynes’ office believes former Brooklyn prosecutor Barbara Burke cooked up an online message to the DA from former Judge Sol Wachtler that used a derogatory Yiddish word for a black person, “schwarze,” to refer to DA-elect Ken Thompson, law-enforcement sources said.
When the e-mails were leaked to the Web site BuzzFeed before the election, they tarnished Hynes as racially insensitive for failing to object to the epithet against Thompson, who is black.
But a probe of the e-mails by Hynes’ office has concluded that the letters were fabricated by Burke, sources told The Post.
Now Hynes’ office plans to ask that an outside prosecutor from Staten Island be appointed to further investigate the matter and possibly bring charges.
“It’s got to be proved, but they can’t be the ones doing it because she’s [formerly] in their office,” said a source familiar with the investigation.
The investigation of Burke — who was fired Nov. 8 for “poor evaluations” — is just one sign of a troubled transition as Hynes leaves office.
Burke is also in the district attorney’s cross hairs for speaking with the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn about allegations that the DA’s office acted unethically in its response to a $150 million wrongful-conviction suit, sources said.
The suit was brought by Jabbar Collins, who was convicted in a case run by controversial prosecutor Michael Vecchione in 1995.
Collins was released in 2010 amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and has since sued the city.
Burke’s lawyer, Mark Bederow, said the DA’s attempt to smear his client by claiming she’s a forger is “pathetic.”
Brooklyn US Attorney spokesman Bob Nardoza and Brooklyn DA spokesman Jerry Schmetterer declined to comment.