District Attorney Spota Appoints New Chief Assistant, Hamptonscom, October 7, 2010

District Attorney Spota Appoints New Chief Assistant

Hamptons.com
October 7, 2010

http://www.hamptons.com/News/Main-Articles/12203/District-Attorney-Spota-Appoints-New-Chief.html

District Attorney Spota Appoints New Chief Assistant

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota announced the promotion of SCDA Chief of Investigations Emily Constant to the position of Chief Assistant District Attorney, the first woman to serve in the position in the 192-year history of the district attorney's office. The Chief Assistant District Attorney is responsible for the day-to-day management of the District Attorney's Office, reporting directly to the District Attorney. In the District Attorney's absence, the Chief Assistant functions as the District Attorney.

"Emily will soon mark her 31st year of service as a prosecutor in this office," District Attorney Spota noted. "Her proactive leadership the past six years as the Division Chief of Investigations with direct supervisory responsibilities of the Governmental Corruption, Special Investigations, Economic Crime, Narcotics, and other investigative bureaus, as well as the Mortgage Fraud and Gang units, has been exemplary."

Constant began her career in law enforcement in the office of the SCDA in October of 1979.

She has worked as an assistant district attorney in the District Court Bureau, Appeals Bureau, and Rackets Bureau, and as Deputy Bureau Chief of the Appeals and Major Crime Bureaus. She was promoted to the position of Family Crime Bureau Chief in 1995.

"Emily's expertise in grand jury investigations was invaluable in this administration's nine-month month probe of allegations of sexual misconduct by members of the Roman Catholic clergy on Long Island, the first of its kind in the nation," said District Attorney Spota. "I assigned her to lead this complex and sensitive investigation because of her ability in the courtroom and her tenacity, well-established during her 10 year stewardship of the Family Crime Bureau, prosecuting sexual offenders who victimize children. Those are the most challenging cases encountered by a district attorney," Spota said. The special grand jury's 200-page report exposed the church's failure to report sex crimes by priests to local enforcement and documented a diocesan policy to reassign to other parishes those priests accused of sexually abusing children.

Among other successful grand jury investigations led by Constant include findings chronicling rampant corruption and incompetence in the Greenport Village Police Department, a report that ultimately spurred the dissolution of the department, and a grand jury report detailing faulty case management practices of child abuse cases by the Suffolk Office of Child Protective Services. Ensuing reforms to improve accountability at CPS included the establishment of the Suffolk County Child Advocacy Center. "Before she found her niche as an investigator Emily tried many cases including attorney embezzlement cases, narcotics cases, complex fraud cases and the case of the notorious South Shore serial rapist, Scott Carroll," Spota noted. "She also argued many cases in both state and federal appellate courts including the NYS Court of Appeals and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals."

Born in Manhattan and raised in Suffolk County, Chief Assistant District Attorney Constant is a graduate of Marymount College and Pace University School of Law.