STATEN ISLAND — District Attorney Michael McMahon took portraits of his predecessors off his office walls because he didn't want to look at the men who held the job before him, the New York Post reported.
McMahon reportedly took down the portraits of all previous district attorneys for the past century during a renovation of his St. George offices, but has yet to put them back up three months after the work was done, the Post reported.
A spokesman for Donovan said the claims he took down the pictures to avoid most recent DA Dan Donovan's stare were "absurd."
Donovan served as Staten Island's top prosecutor from 2009 to 2015. He left his post after he was elected to Congress.
As part of the remodeling process, McMahon also paid $50,000 to replace carpet and buy new furniture for his office and $67,000 on a new GMC Yukon SUV — which McMahon's office blamed on Donovan leaving them with old, broken SUV and a carpet full of mold from an air conditioner left on for months.
On Wednesday, McMahon's office announced he had promoted two new bureau chiefs and hired new four staff members, including the wife of Borough President James Oddo.
Kim Peterson, who served as an assistant district attorney for eight years and later as the principal court attorney to Queens County Supreme Court Judge James P. Griffin, will join McMahon's office at the end of the month to serve as the chief of the Criminal Court Bureau, McMahon announced.
Aside from Peterson, McMahon announced that longtime prosecutor Mark Palladino was promoted to Chief of the Trials Bureau and David Frey, who's worked in the office for more than 18 years, was named the Investigations Bureau Chief.
McMahon also announced the hiring of three new ADAs. Lisa Davis, who worked as an ADA in the Bronx for 16 years, Gregg Brown, a prosecutor in Essex County in New Jersey for eight years, and Vasil Trajcevski, who worked in the Bronx District Attorney's office.
"I have made it a priority to recruit and promote the best legal talent Staten Island has to offer," McMahon said in a statement.
"With the addition of these new assistant district attorneys, the borough will have more prosecutors who have a stake in our mission and who are dedicated to making the Island a safer place for us all."
