Orange County News
For Immediate Release                                                                           Contact: Christopher Borek
Thursday, June 13, 2019                                                                    845.291.3276, 845.238.4245c

District Attorney Hoovler Announces Release of District Attorney’s
Office 2018 Annual Report and Executive Summary

 “Supporting Victims . . . Combating Illegal Opioids”

 Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler, on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, announced the release of the District Attorney’s Office 2018 Annual Report. In addition, the Office released a one-page Executive Summary of the full Report.

The Report outlines the structure of the District Attorney’s Office and the operations of its various units; provides statistics on the number of cases that the units in the Office handled in 2018; and describes the facts of several individual cases that the Office prosecuted last year.

Highlights of the Report include:

Narcotics Enforcement. In 2018, the District Attorney’s Office continued to fight the opioid epidemic, with an increase over 2017 in the number of narcotics cases prosecuted; continued diversion of appropriate offenders to drug treatment; and successful prosecution of a Middletown gang for murder and drug dealing.

Welfare Fraud Recoveries. To date, the continued efforts of the District Attorney’s Office and its welfare‐fraud enforcement partners in investigating and prosecuting public benefits crimes has resulted in restitution of over $685,000 in fraudulently obtained benefits being returned to programs administered by the Orange County Department of Social Services.

Crimes Against Revenue Program (CARP). In 2018, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services provided the District Attorney’s Office with an $84,000 CARP grant, to partially fund the salary of an experienced prosecutor. With that grant, the District Attorney’s Office recovered nearly $630,000 in fraudulently obtained state money, representing a 750% return on the State’s investment and the highest return on DCJS’s CARP investment of any CARP county in the State.

Unemployment Benefits Recoveries. In 2018, District Attorney Hoovler and five ADAs were honored by the New York State Department of Labor with its “Certificate of Merit,” for “successfully prosecuting unemployment insurance fraud in Orange County, resulting in the return of over one million dollars to the Department of Labor Unemployment Trust Fund.”

City of Newburgh Anti-Violence Efforts. The District Attorney’s Office, the City of Newburgh Police Department, and other partners continued to use innovative strategies to reduce violent crime in the City, including the Gun-Involved Violence Elimination Initiative and the Non-Fatal Shootings Initiative. In part as a result of those efforts, only eight bullet-body shootings occurred in the City of Newburgh in 2018, as compared to 55 in 2015, a more than 85% reduction.

“Combating the opioid epidemic, which has devastated the lives of so many of our residents, has been our number one priority,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “We will continue to fight this scourge using every means at our disposal, from engaging in large-scale, multi-agency investigations utilizing court-ordered wiretaps, to partnering with not-for-profits to encourage appropriate offenders with substance abuse issues to seek treatment.

“I am also proud that our Crimes Against Revenue Program has repeatedly had the highest return on investment of any CARP program in New York State, and that we have been honored by the New York State Department of Labor with a Certificate of Merit for our success in prosecuting unemployment insurance fraud. More importantly, our CARP program, including our welfare fraud prosecutions, has had a measurable deterrent effect on crimes that would have cost Orange County taxpayers millions of dollars, and we have been able to return approximately $685,000 to Orange County’s coffers to be used for the benefit of those who legitimately need help.

“But I don’t intend for my Office to rest on its laurels. Much remains to be done, as we face new challenges to our ability to protect our citizens.”

Copies of the Annual Report and Executive Summary are available by contacting District Attorney Hoovler’s Special Projects and Community Affairs Bureau at (845) 291-2050 or by email to DACommunityAffairs@orangecountygov.com.

Download the reports below:

2018 Annual Report Executive Summary

2018 Annual Report