This is a denunciation of Katie Doran, Advisor to the Manhattan District Attorney for Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender Issues.
At the same time, it is a call to action for the gay community and anybody interested in human rights to pay attention to how Katie Doran is treating victims, and to demand better for victims.
Beyond the details of my personal experiences with Katie Doran, I report that I have spoken with a retired lawyer who in the 1980s worked for The New York City Commission on Human Rights. He had a working relationship with then Mayor Ed Koch who in turn had a working relationship with Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. He explained to me that he was concerned at the time over the Manhattan District Attorneys Office not having in its employ one out gay attorney. Through Mayor Koch, he negotiated and accepted a compromise whereby the D.A. Would create the position of an Advisor on GLBT Issues. He told me he regrets accepting that compromise, because what the GLBT Advisor does is "present the District Attorney's excuses to the victims." He knows Katie Doran, says that he "can not believe" that she is still in the position and that she is "horrible."
In October, I attended a meeting in the Manhattan D.A.'s Office with a gay male victim of domestic violence whose spleen had been ruptured at the level of a Grade III splenic rupture which required his being hospitalized in an intensive surgical care unit. The October meeting took place over one month after the injury had been inflicted; he was scarifyingly thin, walked at a very slow pace and with a halting gait and feeling severe pain with most movements of his body.
Yet during the meeting, Katie Doran said "We've seen worse injuries than yours." Mind you that the description of the GLBT Advisor's role given on the D.A.'s website says of victims "Some may feel vulnerable and lonely and may want to discuss the details of their victimization with someone who is sensitive to their concerns."
The Assistant District Attorney assigned to the prosecution of the defendant has not been respecting this victim's rights. Yet the present is a denunciation of Katie Doran, not the ADA. I mention it in passing, however, because Katie Doran has on occasion abetted the ADA in disrespecting the victim's rights. The gay community in particular, but also anybody interested in human rights, should insist on greater accountability on the part of District Attorneys and their staffs as regards victims and the safety of the community.
Whereas at the October meeting, Katie Doran told this victim he could call her with any questions, he afterwards left her voicemail messages on successive days, messages which she did not return. I e-mailed Katie Doran asking for an explanation of why she had not returned the victims calls. The e-mail response she sent begins with the phrase Not that I owe you any explanation. She goes on to deny that any voicemail messages had been left for her by this victim. Even if due to some technical difficulty, Katie Doran had not received the victims voicemail messages, it was grossly inappropriate for her to respond to an inquiry by saying Not that I owe you any explanation. A reasonable human being with genuine concern and empathy for victims would answer an advocate by writing something like There seems to have been a misunderstanding or some other non-hostile expression.
Between October and May Katie Doran on many occasions did many other things to alienate this victim. During a meeting in the D.A. S Office in May, the ADA claimed that the victim had not previously told her about a particular evidence lead in the case. Katie Doran also said that the victim had never mentioned this evidence lead. Though I did not attend the May meeting, I had attended the October meeting, at which time I absolutely did hear the victim discuss this evidence lead.
To test Katie Doran's integrity, I e-mailed her, asking whether she acknowledges having said to the victim at the October meeting "We've seen worse injuries than yours." I had in the interim complained about that phrase to more than one person in New York City Government, and Katie Doran knew of some of those complaints. She did not respond to my e-mail, so I called her. I asked whether she had received my e-mail. She said "Yes" then remained silent. If I hadn't posed another question, nothing more would have been said. I asked whether she acknowledges having said "We've seen worse injuries than yours." She said "I do not." I asked "So you claim that you did not say that?" She said "That is correct."
It is not that Katie Doran said "I can not recall whether I said that." It's that she denied it outright, and in denying it outright, she was lying. I can have forgiveness and respect for a person who acknowledges their mistakes and commits to not repeating a mistake. But it is just despicable and beneath all contempt for a public servant who is charged with contributing to the safety of the community to outright lie the way Katie Doran lied to me. Katie Doran is covering for the ADA and the ADA is covering for Katie Doran.
The victim, furthermore, did not want Katie Doran present at the May meeting in the D.A.'s Office. He sent an e-mail to that effect to the ADA, copied to Katie Doran. His e-mail received no response. When he got to the meeting, Katie Doran was there.in the course of the meeting, he told Katie Doran that she is "the worst thing that could possibly be representing the gay community" and he made known that he did not want her there, yet she did not leave. Katie Doran is not involved as a lawyer in the prosecution of the case. No victim should ever have to discuss the circumstances of their victimization in the presence of somebody they do not want there.
After the meeting, the victim sent an e-mail to the ADA, asking why she had ignored his e-mail stating that he did not want Katie Doran at the meeting. Without even using Katie Doran's name, the ADA answered by saying that as the ADA assigned to the case, she had the obligation to determine who on the D.A.'s Staff is "appropriate and necessary" at a meeting. To call a spade a spade, the ADA was there bullying this victim. If there was anything "necessary" about Katie Doran's presence at the meeting, the victim deserved an explanation of what about her presence was "necessary." That would be particularly true because if in a future meeting about the case Katie Doran's presence were indeed necessary, the victim should have a complete understanding of that, so that he would feel comfortable.
All requests for that explanation have gone unanswered. I made a very detailed complaint to the NYC Public Advocate about the ADA including details of Katie Doran's unacceptable behavior towards the victim. The Public Advocate sent my letter of complaint on to the District Attorney's Office. The District Attorney's Office reacted by turning the letter over to Katie Doran, who instead of acknowledging any inappropriate behavior towards the victim called the Public Advocate's Office to complain about me. Additionally, Katie Doran said that the District Attorney's Office "is willing to work with" the victim."
Because the community does not pay adequate attention to how the District Attorney's Office handles victims, the District Attorney's Office feels empowered to disrespect a victim's rights and then answer complaints about violations of a victim's rights by saying that the D.A.'s Office "is willing to work with" the victim. It could not possibly get more Kafkaesque than that.
When Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau ran against Leslie Crocker Snyder in one of Ms. Snyder's platform points was that Morgenthau does not handle domestic violence cases properly. So the problems in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office regarding the handling of victims would seem not to be limited to gay victims only.
Nonetheless, the gay community should make a point of paying attention to what Katie Doran is doing and of insisting that gay victims be given a better, more empathic advocate within the District Attorney's Office. The community should not let the person in that position "present the District Attorney's excuses to the victims."
Here is the text of an e-mail message I sent to Katie Doran on July 23;
Dear Ms. Doran;
We have not yet received an explanation of ADA (ADA's name removed)'s definition of your presence in a May 20th meeting at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office with (victim's name removed) as "necessary."
At this link:
http://manhattanda.org/communityaffairs/liaison/
It says of your role:
"The Advisor also acts as a point of contact for gay / lesbian / bisexual / transgender individuals, and organizations, or other interested people, seeking information about specific criminal cases or broader issues related to criminal justice."
Please respond to our question promptly. If you will not be able to answer the question within 48 hours, please let us know the timeframe within which we should expect a response.
Katie Doran did not see fit to respond. The victim still has no idea of why her presence at a meeting with him was determined to have been "necessary" when he positively did not want her in the meeting, and did not want to have to discuss the extremely sensitive, psychologically painful and traumatizing details of his victimization in her presence.
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