The Office's Divisions

Trial Division

The Trial Division, the largest division in the Office, has principal responsibility for prosecuting misdemeanor and felony street crime cases. New Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) begin by handling misdemeanor prosecutions, including a wide variety of cases such as larcenies, simple assaults, possession of drugs, as well as domestic violence cases. As ADAs gain experience, they are assigned felony cases. Senior ADAs in the Trial Division also handle homicide cases as well as other types of more complex investigations and high-profile cases. Some felony ADAs choose to specialize in certain types of crimes by joining some of the smaller units and bureaus including the Sex Crimes Unit, Asian Gang Unit, Firearms Trafficking Unit, Welfare Fraud Unit, Family Violence and Child Abuse Bureau, Special Projects Bureau, Career Criminal Bureau, and Homicide Investigations Unit. Last year, ADAs in the Trial Division prosecuted close to 130,000 cases.

Investigation Division

The Investigation Division is staffed by over seventy experienced Assistant District Attorneys who work with investigators, analysts, and accountants on the investigation and prosecution of sophisticated white collar cases, public and private corruption cases, and rackets cases. In general, ADAs assigned to the division are recruited from other divisions in the Office and have trial or appellate experience.

"There is probably no prosecutorial jurisdiction in the country whose investigative capacity rivals the Manhattan DA's...his office has closed down dozens of major drug rings and has broken the Mob's hold on the trucking industry in the Garment District and on several of the building-trades locals, big ambitious cases that, like the carting case, one might expect would be brought by federal prosecutors."

The New Yorker

Typically, the most junior attorneys in the division are assigned to the Special Prosecutions Bureau where they conduct shorter investigations including, for example, employee embezzlement, insurance fraud, or housing fraud. Assistant District Attorneys who are assigned to the Frauds Bureau specialize in investigating complicated economic crimes like securities fraud, money laundering by banks, commercial frauds, computer crimes, and municipal frauds. The Crimes against Revenue Unit prosecutes tax fraud and the Asset Forfeiture Unit brings civil actions to recover assets that are proceeds of criminal activities. Assistant District Attorneys assigned to the Rackets Bureau, the Official Corruption Unit, and the Construction Industry Strike Force/Labor Racketeering Unit, investigate and prosecute organized crime cases, corruption cases involving public officials and police officers, labor racketeering, and corruption in the real estate and construction industry.

Our Office has long been a leader in sophisticated long-term investigations. Among our investigative strategies is to develop cases that will have the most significant impact on the welfare of the community.

"In recent years, my office has brought wide-ranging indictments involving the carting industry, the management of co-ops and condominiums, the interior construction trades, the securities industry, and many more. I am committed to prosecuting crime in the "suites" as well as crime in the streets."

District Attorney
Robert M. Morgenthau

Appeals Bureau

The Appeals Bureau handles all of the Office's appellate work. Assistant District Attorneys in the Bureau are assigned their own appellate cases immediately to brief and argue before the state appellate courts. Senior attorneys are assigned to edit the briefs of more junior members and moot courts prepare them for oral arguments.

Because of the Manhattan location and the large number of appeals, Bureau members play a prominent role in precedent-setting litigation that shapes the body of criminal law in New York. During the past year, members of the Bureau represented the appellant or respondent in about one-third of the criminal appeals heard by the New York Court of Appeals. Appeals ADAs shape the law by selecting and pursuing appeals in which the state is the appellant and by drafting proposed legislative amendments.

In addition, Assistant District Attorneys in the Bureau handle Office-related civil litigation in both the federal and state courts, including habeas corpus proceedings and civil rights actions.

Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office

The Office of the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor (OSNP) was created in 1971. The Office works with city, state, and federal law enforcement to implement effective strategies against narcotics trafficking and related crime. OSNP prosecutions and enforcement initiatives have dismantled national and international narcotics networks and successfully targeted entrenched drug activity and related violence in many neighborhoods of the City.

Assistant District Attorneys are assigned to OSNP by the City's five District Attorneys and are placed in the Investigations Division, the Trial Division, or the Alternative Sentencing Division. Investigations Division assistants oversee complex, long-term investigations, most involving sophisticated eavesdropping operations that target large-scale trafficking organizations distributing narcotics throughout the City and other parts of the United States. The Trial Division handles the majority of the felony drug investigations and arrests from street-level trafficking and direct investigations to mid-level drug trafficking operations. The Alternative Sentencing Division diverts defendants into treatment programs.

Link to the Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Office