Park Slope author and former assistant DA Rob Reuland published a crime novel and made a comment in New York Magazine. He was fired by his boss, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, who recently published his own crime novel.
In 2001, Mr. Reuland, who had just
published a novel about the prosecuting life, was demoted and then
fired by Mr. Hynes after saying in a magazine interview that Brooklyn
had “more dead bodies per square inch than anyplace else.” Mr. Reuland
sued, claiming that Mr. Hynes had violated his free-speech rights. In
2004, a jury awarded Mr. Reuland $30,000. Mr. Hynes appealed to a
federal appellate court, then to the Supreme Court. On Monday, the high
court refused to hear Mr. Hynes’s case. Mr. Hynes said through a
spokesman yesterday that “the decision of the Supreme Court” — the
single word “denied” — “speaks for itself.”