MINEOLA, NY (TIP): Joyce Smith made history Wednesday as she took an oath as Nassau County’s acting district attorney, becoming the first Black person to fill the role. Madeline Singas swore Smith in, just a day after the former Nassau district attorney ascended to a judgeship in the state’s highest court during what had been her second elected term as the county’s top law enforcement official.
“I wasn’t elected to this position but I promise … to continue to serve the people of Nassau County with humility and integrity,” Smith said as she took the oath.
A Queens native, Smith joined the Nassau district attorney’s office in 2018 and was executive assistant district attorney for the Community Relations Division when Singas named her as her interim successor under state and county law.
Smith, 51, a Hempstead resident whom voter rolls list as an Independent, has prior experience leading the Special Prosecutions Division of the Queens district attorney’s office — where she worked for 15 years, concentrating on domestic violence cases.
A biography her office released also said Smith spent four years as a staff attorney in the office of general counsel for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, investigating and recommending best practices for relations between police and communities.
Smith, who is single and has no children, also served previously as executive director for the Bronx Family Justice Center and as assistant commissioner and deputy chief of staff for the NYC Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence.
Smith is a graduate of Adelphi University and Howard University School of Law and teaches as an adjunct professor at Hofstra Law School and at Nassau Community College.
If Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo takes no action, Smith will continue to serve as district attorney until a special election to fill the job. Election law experts have said that because Singas resigned as district attorney more than 90 days before the next general Election Day, the county will have to hold a such an election to replace her.
In the meantime, Cuomo also could choose to appoint Smith or a different lawyer as district attorney
Smith, while heading Community Relations, created several advisory councils comprised of leaders in Nassau’s African American, Hispanic, South Asian and Asian communities to facilitate opportunities for collaboration among those residents, prosecutors and police, according to the district attorney’s office.
Her other responsibilities included overseeing Immigrant Affairs, Victim Services and employee recruitment, along with the district attorney’s Community Partnership Program Office in Hempstead, according to her biography.