Tim’s Mission

Experience

Tim’s Journey to District Attorney

Tim has a long history of serving Suffolk County. After years of convicting gang members and murderers as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Tim decided to bring his lifelong commitment to public service back home to Suffolk County. In 2015, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone recruited Tim to take over the Suffolk County Police Department and reform it on the heels of its largest scandal in history. Tim was sworn in as Police Commissioner and set out to rebuild the department, restoring integrity to the leadership, increasing accountability and implementing 21st century policing strategies to dismantle the gang MS-13 and better protect the residents of Suffolk County.

Motivation

Going Where Reform Was Needed

During his tenure as Police Commissioner, it became clear to Police Commissioner Sini that in order to truly reform the Suffolk County Criminal Justice System and protect the residents of Suffolk County, the reforms could not stop with his work in the Police Department. The District Attorney’s Office needed to be reformed too. In 2017, when the former Suffolk County District Attorney and his top aide were federally indicted on corruption charges, Tim ran for District Attorney on a platform of reform and was elected in a landslide by the people of Suffolk County—Tim set out, yet again, to restore integrity to the leadership of the office, and use his experience and track record of successfully managing Suffolk Law Enforcement Agencies to reform the DA’s office to better protect the people of Suffolk County and hold criminals accountable.

Reforming the Office

From his very first day in office, Tim set out to completely overhaul the District Attorney’s office, its personnel, policies, procedures and every aspect of its operation and structure.

A Top-to-Bottom Assessment

After taking office, Tim did a massive top-to-bottom assessment of the Office. Tim interviewed every Assistant District Attorney in the office, and asked them to make recommendations for improvement. He recruited top talent from other DA’s offices, Federal Prosecutors, a diverse group of law schools, and private sector attorneys, and he revamped training procedures to ensure the office has the highest level of talent and best prosecutors possible. He also rebuilt the entire management structure in the office to oversee each case and modernized the office by digitizing all case files.

A National Model

Making the Office a National Model

Tim’s mission is to make the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office a national model in the way it delivers justice and takes on the public safety challenges of our time.

Taking Down MS-13

After implementing the largest MS-13 crackdown in Suffolk’s history as our Police Commissioner, as District Attorney, Tim led a multi-year international investigation that culminated in the largest takedown of MS-13 in history.

Prosecuting Drug Traffickers

Tim has been a national leader on combatting the opioid epidemic here in Suffolk County. Tim knows we have to take a nuanced approach to the public safety challenges of our time, which is why he has created a spectrum of diversion programs for non-violent offenders suffering from addiction to get them access to treatment. At the same time, Tim also believes it is his duty to use the full weight and power of the criminal justice system to hold drug traffickers and drug dealers who petal poison in our communities accountable.

Over the course of 2019 and 2020, Tim’s aggressive targeting of drug traffickers in Suffolk County resulted in Suffolk County leading the country in Narcotics Wiretap Investigations.

Protecting Suffolk’s Clean Water

In 2018, Tim led “Operation Pay Dirt,” the largest illegal dumping investigation in New York State history.

Busting Human Trafficking Rings

Tim has employed a nuanced approach to human trafficking as District Attorney, treating victims of human trafficking as true victims, while using the full weight and power of his office to hold Traffickers accountable for their crimes.

Advocacy

Advocating for Public Safety Laws

In addition to Tim’s work to seek justice in each and every case, Tim knows keeping Suffolk County safe requires advocating for better public safety laws too.

Opposing Bail Reform

Tim has always opposed bail reform because it makes us less safe. When bail reform was proposed by state lawmakers, Tim advocated against it, including taking trips to Albany to meet with Senators and Assembly-members, writing op-eds in Newsday and rallying support in the community. Tim successfully advocated for certain offenses to be bail-eligible under the new law, including murder conspiracy, that were originally not going to be eligible. Tim continues to oppose bail reform and continues to advocate for improvements to our public safety laws.