Queens DA requests dismissal of nearly 700 cases related to sex work

The district attorney in the New York City borough of Queens has requested the dismissal of nearly 700 cases in which New Yorkers were charged with “loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution” and other crimes related to sex work.

District Attorney Melinda Katz (D) confirmed in a statement Tuesday that her office requested the dismissal of 146 cases related to “loitering for the purpose of prostitution” in addition to hundreds of other cases linked the charge and other prostitution statutes.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) last month signed legislation repealing the decades-old anti-loitering law.

Critics of the former law dubbed it the “walking while trans” law and criticized it as overly broad, citing police harassment against transgender women.

“Historical data shows that enforcement of this statue had primarily been used to arrest people based on their gender or appearance,” Katz said in the statement Tuesday.

“Dismissing the cases related to this unfair and now repealed statute frees members of our community from the collateral consequences of their arrests,” she continued, calling for city officials to provide sex workers with “meaningful services, support options and the necessary tools that will assist them to safely exit the sex trade if that is what they choose to do.” 

Katz also requested that the court seal the records on the dismissed cases so that “these individuals do not have a criminal record as to these matters.”

The district attorney in the New York City borough of the Bronx, Darcel Clark (D), announced last week that a judge granted her office’s move to dismiss more than 800 cases connected to the former anti-loitering law, The Associated Press reported.

The move in Queens comes on the same day that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) pushed officials across the state to decriminalize sex work.

New York must END the criminalization of sex workers.

I’m calling on the State to end criminal penalties for sex workers. Let’s put our focus on the actual criminals — traffickers and those who profit off a broken system. https://t.co/ZPligIf7jU

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 16, 2021

De Blasio announced that the New York Police Department will “develop new approaches to focus on arresting and punishing the traffickers while not harming the sex workers themselves.”

“We need to end the criminalization of sex workers and put all of the focus on enforcement against those who subjugate them,” de Blasio told reporters.