#Legal Aid appeals for release of 92 arrested protesters awaiting arraignment

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Protesters are arrested by NYPD for violating the 8pm curfew at 136th and Brooke Ave in The Bronx.
Stephen Yang

The Legal Aid Society has appealed a judge’s ruling from Thursday denying the release of protesters whose arraignments are overdue.

On Tuesday, the legal group filed a petition seeking the release of all people who were arrested and hadn’t been arraigned within 24 hours — as is legally required barring necessary delays — as the city has seen a surge in arrests since protests, riots and looting have broken out amid George Floyd’s death.

Manhattan Acting Supreme Court Justice James Burke denied the petition, finding that since the city was in a “crisis within a crisis” of civil unrest compounded with the coronavirus pandemic, the arraignment delays were necessary.

Legal Aid filed a notice of appeal Friday with the First Department appellate court noting that there were still 92 New Yorkers who had waited longer than 24 hours to go before a judge.

“The NYPD is not above the law, and detaining New Yorkers for more than 24 hours after an arrest and denying them speedy access to a judge violates of our fundamental standards of justice,” said Legal Aid’s Tina Luongo. “92 New Yorkers held illegally, deprived of their due process rights, is 92 New Yorkers too many. We look forward to securing a successful outcome in the Appellate Division.”

“A judge recognized yesterday that the criminal justice system is doing the best it can under very challenging circumstances to process and adjudicate the arrests stemming from the looting during this pandemic,” Patricia Miller, a lawyer for the city, said in a statement . “We are confident that the appellate court will recognize that these allegations have no legal merit.”