Public Defender Tiffany Cabán Announces Run for Queens District Attorney

Tiffany Caban (via Caban for Queens)

Jan. 28, 2019 By Meghan Sackman

The Queens District Attorney race is steadily picking up steam, with another candidate officially launching her run for the position just days ago.

Tiffany Cabán, a career public defender and Astoria resident, officially announced her bid on Jan. 25 to secure the Democratic nomination for Queens District Attorney, taking to launching a website and campaign video on the same day to mark her candidacy.

Cabán, who grew up in Queens, worked as an attorney at the Legal Aid Society for three years until 2015, and has been an attorney for New York County Defender Services since. She earned her law degree from New York Law School, and her bachelor’s at Penn State University.

The public defender notes on her website that she is “running to transform the Queens District Attorney’s office after years of witnessing its abuses on the front lines.”

“I have spent my career working for people who did not have resources to defend themselves against the brutal system of mass incarceration,” reads a section of the Cabán for Queens website.

As Queens District Attorney, Cabán says her office will take on a slew of progressive and restorative reforms which include ending mass incarceration and the war on drugs, resisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and putting a stop to cash bail.

“As District Attorney, I will reform our system in pursuit of economic, social and racial justice, because that is the only way to get genuine justice – for all,” Cabán said on her website.

Cabán’s progressive platform stands in stark contrast to the office of Richard Brown, who has served as District Attorney since 1991 before announcing that he would retire by the end of the year.

Brown has been criticized for his tough-on-crime approach over the years, especially as DA offices citywide and elsewhere have taken on more progressive reforms.

Cabán will be running against other candidates like Borough President Melinda Katz, City Council Member Rory Lancman, and retired Supreme Court Justice Greg Lasak in the June 25 Democratic Primary.