D.A. Hynes revisits notorious Howard Beach killing

Twenty-five years after a shocking racial attack rocked New YorkCity, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes is making surethat the victims are not forgotten.

Hynes has re-released his book, Incident at Howard Beach: TheCase for MurderHynes prosecuted the high-profile case and ultimately securedmanslaughter convictions for Jon Lester, Scott Kern and JasonLadone.

I re-released the book to coincide with the 25th anniversary ofMichael Griffith’s death, Hynes explained at a book signing heldat the Baron Associates law office at 2509 Avenue U. I feltterribly sorry for Michael, who died at the age of 23 simplybecause he had a different skin color.

Co-written by journalist Bob Drury, the book was originallypublished in 1990 but has since been out of print. Hynes felt itwas important to keep the work on bookshelves so he independentlypublished a 25th anniversary edition, which contains a new forwardand a letter from Griffith’s mother recalling the nightmare ofher son’s death.

It is my prayer that no mother or father suffers the years ofsadness this tragedy has caused to me and my family, writes JeanGriffith-Sandiford, who now works in the district attorney’scommunity relations office.

There is much to be learned by revisiting the Howard Beach attack,Hynes said, as Brooklynites are still victimized because of thecolor of their skin, religion or sexuality.

We still have some problems with hate crimes. We certainly havehate crimes against Orthodox Jews and members of the LGBT [Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] community, he said. But we don’thave anything like the racial tension and the blind anger betweenthe races that we had years ago.

Since this is a special edition of Incident at Howard Beach, allproceeds from the book’s sale will fund an annual colloquium onracial justice and tolerance at Medgar Evers College in CrownHeights.

The distribution of Hynes’ book coupled with such events will teachyoung Brooklynites about the city’s dark past and how they canshape a brighter future, said Kensington resident Louise Falcone,who attended the book signing.

It’s good to make this known to all those people who weren’t bornyet when this occurred in Howard Beach, she said. They probablycan’t even fathom that this kind of thing could havehappened.

Incident at Howard Beach: The Case for Murder retails for $21.95 atwww.Amazon.com. A digital version is available for $3.03.