EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
The Special Narcotics Prosecutor directs the policies and management of the office. The executive staff, composed of veteran attorneys and other professionals, assists in overseeing investigations and prosecutions, as well as programs that offer alternatives to incarceration.
INVESTIGATION DIVISION
The Investigation Division focuses on complex, high-level narcotics organizations and seizing narcotics proceeds. It is composed of the Special Investigations Bureau, the Heroin Interdiction Team, the Prescription Drug Investigation Unit, the Money Laundering and Financial Investigations Unit, and Forfeiture Investigations Unit, and the Discovery Compliance and Litigation Unit.
Trial Divison
Trial Division Assistant District Attorneys handle the bulk of the drug felony arrests referred to the office for prosecution. The division contains two trial bureaus, which handle short-term investigations focusing on mid-sized drug organizations and street-level drug groups. Assistant District Attorneys in the Trial Division also conduct long-term investigations under the direction of supervisors from the Investigations Division.
ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING DIVISION
SNP’s Alternative Sentencing Division has successfully worked for 30 years to provide defendants the needed tools to treat substance use disorder and end the cycle of crime and incarceration through SNP’s pioneering Drug Treatment Alternatives to Prison (DTAP) programs. Experienced staff assist in reviewing applications for Judicial Diversion, established by the New York State Legislature in 2009 to grant judges authority to evaluate eligibility for court-sponsored diversion programs.
Enforcement
Investigators Unit
The Investigators Unit works with Assistant District Attorneys and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in combating drug activity throughout the five boroughs of New York City and beyond. Created in 1992, the unit is overseen by highly experienced law enforcement veterans with decades of prior experience with the NYPD’s Narcotics Division and the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force.
NYPD Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Unit
The New York City Police Department has assigned a team of detectives to the office since 1972. The NYPD's Special Narcotics Prosecutor's Unit is under the command of a senior lieutenant who serves as a liaison between SNP and the NYPD’s Criminal Enterprise Division. Expert at tracking, safekeeping and presentation of electronically recorded evidence, the detectives also provide support on search warrant investigations and maintain citywide repositories for electronically recorded evidence.
Legal Training unit
outreach
Community Outreach
SNP is committed to partnering with communities and enhancing the quality of life of all New Yorkers. The Community Outreach Unit meets with community and religious leaders, block associations, the New York City Housing Authority and other groups to address local drug problems, while conferring regularly with NYPD officials to devise strategies to combat crime. For more information about our Community Outreach programs, call (212) 815-0454.
Educational Outreach
SNP seeks to save lives by educating young people and families about the opioid crisis and particularly lethal fentanyl. The Educational Outreach Committee offers workshops designed to raise awareness among teens, college students, parents, teachers, and school staff. Additionally, hundreds of teachers have completed intensive trainings on how to administer naloxone (an opioid overdose reversal drug) through a collaboration between SNP, NYU Langone Health Emergency Room Doctors’ Prevention Education Partnership (PEP) and the Department of Education’s Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialists (SAPIS).
public information
The Public Information Unit responds to inquiries from members of the media, government agencies, advocacy groups and the general public. It disseminates information on the status of cases, legal decisions, legislative action, citywide drug trafficking trends and the results of joint enforcement efforts. Additionally, the unit prepares regular reports and public testimony. Members of the media and the general public can contact the unit at (212) 815-0525.
Support Services
Support staff provides non-legal services that are essential to the operation of the agency and assist with investigations, prosecutions and trials.
Fiscal | Human Resources | Information Technologies | Criminal and Investigative Analysts | Trial Preparation Assistants (TPAs) | Extraditions/DetainersGrand Jury Reporters | Interpretation and Translation Services | Operations
Bridget G. Brennan, Special Narcotics Prosecutor
Ms. Brennan is in charge of an agency dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of felony narcotics cases and related crime across all five boroughs of the city. The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor is built on a task force model, and works closely with its local, state and federal partners. Its mission is to protect the public and prevent overdose deaths by implementing a strategic approach to enforcement, to ensure our criminal justice system is fair for all.
Under Ms. Brennan’s direction, the office has developed innovative strategies to stem the flow of drugs into the city, target violent drug distribution rings, and prosecute drug sellers linked to overdose deaths. Additionally, Ms. Brennan strives to reduce demand for narcotics by raising public awareness and facilitating treatment for those with substance use issues. The office has also expanded alternatives to incarceration initiatives and community and educational outreach efforts and enhanced its post-conviction review process.
She established the Heroin Interdiction Team (HIT), the Digital Forensic Services Unit, the Criminal and Investigative Analysts Unit, the Prescription Drug Investigation Unit (PDIU), the Money Laundering and Financial Investigation Unit, the Community Outreach Unit, the Discovery Litigation and Compliance Unit, the Post Judgment Litigation Unit, the Conviction Review Committee, and the Educational Outreach Committee.
Ms. Brennan joined the office in 1992 and served as the second in command from 1995 to 1997. Prior to that, she was the Chief of the Special Investigations Bureau, overseeing some of the most significant narcotics investigations in the country. Ms. Brennan has been a prosecutor since 1983 when she joined the New York County District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney. While there, she handled hundreds of misdemeanor and felony prosecutions, including homicides and sex crimes cases. Before her legal career, she was a print, radio and television reporter in her native Wisconsin. Ms. Brennan graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School with a Juris Doctor degree. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin.
Ms. Brennan has been a speaker at international conferences and throughout the United States. She has appeared as an expert on narcotics crime in national and local media. She was recognized as Outstanding Prosecutor by the Criminal Justice Section of the New York State Bar Association, and for her leadership by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, New York County Lawyers Association, and numerous community organizations, enforcement agencies, and substance use treatment providers.
Executive & Managerial Staff
LISA M. TOMPKINS
Chief Assistant District Attorney
LISA DEPASQUALE
Chief of the Trial Division
Chief of Alternative Sentencing
THOMAS G. VAN NOY
Executive Assistant District Attorney for Administration
Bernice Ordonez
Chief of the Investigations Division
NIGEL I. FARINHA
Chief Diversity Officer
Chair, Conviction Review Committee
KATHRYN O'NEILL
Director of Legal Training
Chief of the Post-Conviction Litigation Unit
PATRICK FLORESTAL
Chief Information Officer
Lei Yuan
Chief Financial
Officer
Calvin Solomon
Director of Community Outreach
Kati Cornell
Director of Public Information
Stefany A. Brown-Paulino
Administrative and Support Manager
DISTRICT ATTORNEYS’ OFFICES
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr.
Brooklyn District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez
Bronx District Attorney
Darcel D. Clark
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz
Staten Island District Attorney Michael E. McMahon
history
