Charles J. Hynes | |
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Hynes in 2012
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Kings County District Attorney | |
In office January 1990 – December 2013 |
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Preceded by | Elizabeth Holtzman |
Succeeded by | Kenneth P. Thompson |
24th New York City Fire Commissioner | |
In office November 5, 1980 – October 22, 1982 |
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Mayor | Ed Koch |
Preceded by | Augustus A. Beekman |
Succeeded by | Joseph E. Spinnato |
Personal details | |
Born |
Charles Joseph Hynes May 28, 1935 Flatbush, Brooklyn |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Patricia L. Pennisi |
Children | 5 |
Alma mater | St. John's University |
Charles Joseph Hynes (born May 28, 1935) was the district attorney of Kings County, New York. A Democrat, Hynes was elected to office in 1989. Hynes lost to Kenneth P. Thompson in the 2013 Democratic primary and then again in the General Election on the Republican and Conservative lines.
Hynes was born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. He attended St. Ann's Academy in Manhattan (now Archbishop Molloy High School), and received both his bachelor's degree, in 1957, and his J.D. in 1961 from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens.
In 1963, Hynes began working for the Legal Aid Society as an associate attorney. He joined the Kings County District Attorney's Office in 1969, as an Assistant District Attorney. In 1971, Hynes was appointed as Chief of the Rackets Bureau, and was named First Assistant District Attorney in 1973.
In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey and Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz appointed Hynes as special state prosecutor for Nursing Homes, Health and Social Services, in response to a massive scandal in the state’s nursing home industry. Hynes' office launched a comprehensive attack on Medicaid fraud, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit eventually became a national model, cited in a report of the House Select Committee on Aging as the best in the country. Hynes testified before Congress in 1976, in favor of legislation establishing state fraud control units and providing federal funding. The legislation became law in 1977. Now, 48 states have Medicaid Fraud Control Units.