Staten Island district attorney candidates Michael McMahon and Joan Illuzzi aggressively attacked each other's records as they faced off Tuesday in a debate sponsored by NY1 and the Staten Island Advance.
The debate aired live on NY1 and lasted approximately one hour. It took place at the College of Staten Island.
One of the topics that came up during the debate was how McMahon was never a prosecutor. He was asked by Rachel Shapiro of the Staten Island Advance why he was qualified to run the district attorney's office without that background.
McMahon responded by claiming that a similar criticism was levied against Dan Donovan when he first ran for district attorney in 2003.
"And what Dan Donovan said at that time was, the role of the district attorney is not to go into court and try cases. The role of the district attorney is to be the chief administrator of the office," McMahon said. "For me, it means getting the young lawyers and getting them trained in the skills of trial advocacy, which I've done for 30 years. It means to get them the resources so that they can go into court well-equipped with modern technology and the tools that they need to bring the bad guys to justice and get convictions in the cases that we move forward. It means being able to do the budgets in that office. It means being able to lead that office and bring the office of Staten Island District Attorney into the 21st century. That's what the people of Staten Island need.
McMahon also pointed to his knowledge of Staten Island as a strength.
"There's a reason that a district attorney is elected. It's because you have to be answerable to the community that elects you," he said. "You have to be the face of that community in the courtrooms. You have to be the person who as you send people into the courtrooms, you have to be the person who sets that policy. My whole life has been building towards this moment where we can say that I, that anyone on this stage have the connection on Staten Island who can set the policies of the Staten Island district attorney's office, not the Manhattan district attorney's office."
Illuzzi was then asked a separate question about two high-profile cases she handled – the case against Pedro Hernandez, the man accused of killing Etan Patz, and the case against former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was accused of attempted rape. Neither case ended in a conviction, and she was asked if either of those cases affected her ability as a prosecutor.
"Anybody who criticizes my office and my office in either DSK or the Etan Patz case has absolutely no knowledge of what it means to be a prosecutor. To be a prosecutor, one must be just and fair. I wanted to make sure that I would be absolutely confident of someone's guilt before I would ask 12 people to convict that person," Illuzzi said. "And certainly, that is the job of the DA's office, to seek justice without fear or favor. It's not a popularity contest. It's about getting it right every time. Not getting a conviction every time. Getting it right every time."
After responding to that question, she also addressed the question initially posed to McMahon, saying he would not understand the job he is running for.
"The gap of his knowledge about what it means to be a prosecutor would be staggering," Illuzzi said. "If his whole life was leading up to his moment, then why wasn't any portion of his life involved in law enforcement? Not one day, not one year, not one moment did Mr. McMahon, when none of you were watching, choose law enforcement, and that is what I chose my entire life. Can you imagine having a dentist running the cardiology department of a major hospital? How could you set policy when you don't understand the job? If you don't understand the job, you cannot set policies. You can go and grab for all of the resources you want, but if you don't know how to allocate them, you know what? It's useless."
In response, McMahon said, "I'm not applying to be the dentist or the cardiologist at the hospital. I'm applying to run the hospital. I'm applying to be the administrator of the hospital, and everyone knows that the head of that hospital has to know every facet of that hospital and the community it serves."
McMahon also attacked Illuzzi's voting record, claiming she missed close to 30 elections in 25 years. Illuzzi responded by saying that she could not come back to vote at times because she was a public servant.
"If you understood what it meant to be a prosecutor, your life is very uncertain. There are some of my former colleagues in the audience that could tell you that at any given moment, you don't go home because a search warrant has to be written, a crime scene has to be examined, or, in my case, a colleague who's on trial has a crisis and has to be supervised. And that's what I was doing," Illuzzi said.
Voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, November 3.