Madeline Brame testified during a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee in New York City.
Brame slammed both Bragg’s handling of the case and the greater New York justice system. (Photo: NPR)
A woman from New York City said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office treated her and her family “like garbage” while she sought to prosecute those guilty for her son’s death.
Madeline Brame testified at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing in New York City on Monday about her son’s death and the years-long legal battle that ensued. Brame slammed both Bragg’s handling of the case and the greater New York justice system, claiming that millions of government funds were being squandered while the crime was on the rise.
Bragg has given “all types of criminal elements free rein to do whatever they want, when they want, how they want, to whomever they want, with no consequences – no deterrence,” according to Brame. “Millions and billions of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going to fund organizations that are doing absolutely nothing to deter this crime.”
“I propose that not another dime of our federal tax dollars be pumped into [soft policing organizations] until they can produce measurable outcomes of the effectiveness of what they are doing with our tax dollars,” she went on. “And as for this district attorney’s office, if he is receiving any federal funds, you must withhold them until he starts doing his damn job and prosecuting crime.”
Army Sgt. Hason Correa, Brame’s son, was stabbed nine times in front of his father in 2018. Mary Saunders, her brother, and another man were accused of being his assailants. Prosecutors worked on the case for over four years, but Bragg’s office was unable to establish that Saunders deliberately helped in Correa’s murder.
“Mary Saunders, the sister involved in the homicide, [Bragg] dismissed her indictment and recharged her with assault with a shoe and sentenced her to one year time served. Travis Stewart – [Bragg] dismissed his gang assault and murder indictment and sentenced him to attempted gang assault,” Brame explained.
Both Saunders and Stewart, according to Brame, were “clearly, on video, participating in the brutal, savage slaughter of my son.”
“This is the atrocity, this is the horror,” she told the New York Post. “And it’s not just me; there are hundreds of thousands of us going through the same thing; we’re being treated like garbage; it’s as if the killer is the victim and the victim is the killer.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-NY, later noted that two of the suspects were convicted and are serving life sentences for the murder of Correa.
Brame was one of many witnesses who spoke at Monday’s field hearing, which was held by Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to emphasize New York City’s crime epidemic. Jordan has said that Bragg should concentrate on violent crime rather than investigating former President Donald Trump for alleged hush payments related to romances he allegedly had with a former adult film actress and a former Playmate model.
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