THE BRONX — Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has started filling out the staff of her new Rikers Island bureau, appointing two former workers from Bank of America and Barclays Capital to key positions in the department.
Jean Walsh, a former deputy superintendent overseeing banking law violations for the state's Department of Financial Services, will oversee three of Clark's top initiatives, including the Rikers Island prosecutions, the public integrity bureau and the special investigations unit.
She has also worked as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx DA's office, vice president and senior audit manager for Bank of America and as a deputy inspector general at the state's Office of the Inspector General.
Deanna Logan, a former director of compliance for Barclays Capital, will serve as chief of the Rikers Island bureau.
Logan currently serves as assistant commissioner for the Department of Correction's trials litigation division, where she supervises trials, and previously worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Clark has also appointed lawyer Wanda Perez-Maldonado as chief of her office's public integrity bureau, which focuses on investigating crimes committed by government officials, and attorney Gina Mignola as chief of the conviction integrity unit, which aims to lower the risk of wrongful convictions and address concerns that people have with prior prosecutions.
Perez-Maldonado was poached from the state attorney general's office, where she worked on cases involving law enforcement officials causing the deaths of unarmed civilians, and previously served as a prosecutor in the Bronx DA's office.
Mignola has served in the Manhattan DA's office for 28 years, most recently as senior appellate counsel.
Tarek Rahman will join Clark's office as well, serving as chief of the new special investigations unit, which will focus on prosecuting a range of crimes. Its first goal will be to examine contraband cases on Rikers Island, with the goal of eventually destroying the system that inmates use to receive banned items.
Rahman's most recent post was as deputy bureau chief of the organized crime task force in the state attorney general's office, and he previously worked at the Bronx DA's office as well.
“These veteran attorneys bring invaluable experience to pivotal initiatives I am launching, including Rikers Island reform and conviction review," Clark said in a statement. "Three of them began their legal careers as prosecutors in this office, and we welcome them back to help us ensure swift, certain justice in The Bronx.”
