Cuomo Orders Probe Into Handling of Racial Attack

Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Friday ordered a state prosecutor to look into charges by two black lawyers that police and prosecutors have mishandled an investigation of a racial attack that led to a black man’s death.

Meanwhile, school officials said they were reviewing security provisions at city schools as a result of heightened racial tensions.

The governor acted on the same day that political, civic and religious leaders called for more community and school programs to lessen racial tensions and that black activists announced a “day of mourning and outrage” over the attack in the Howard Beach section of Queens on the night of Dec. 19.

Cuomo ordered Charles J. Hynes, a deputy state attorney general, to begin a preliminary investigation into whether police mishandled the investigation of the attack.

Lawyers Silence Survivors

Lawyers Alton Maddox Jr. and C. Vernon Mason have advised their clients, the survivors of the attack, not to talk to Queens prosecutors investigating the incident.

A judge this week dismissed second-degree murder charges against three young white defendants in the case, citing a lack of evidence created by the refusal of the survivors to cooperate. The youths are charged only with reckless endangerment.

Hynes said he would investigate the “very serious” allegations with or without the cooperation of the survivors.

“If not aggressively pursued, then a cloud is going to hang over the agencies,” he said. “If (the allegations are) true, they ought to be prosecuted.”

Hynes’ most recent investigation resulted in the indictment of 13 police officers in Brooklyn’s 77th Precinct on charges of shaking down drug dealers.

Maddox and Mason could not be reached for comment.

The attack and subsequent incidents characterized by police as “bias incidents” have created concern among school officials about possible disturbances Monday, when classes will be resumed after the Christmas break.

Reviewing Security

Dick Riley, a spokesman for the Board of Education, said that, “given the current climate” of racial tension, school officials were reviewing security provisions at schools.

“The chancellor has made it clear that he doesn’t want to turn the schools into armed camps, nor do we feel it’s necessary,” Riley said. However, he said steps were being taken to make certain school security is “adequate.”