OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY RICHMOND COUNTY

MICHAEL E. MCMAHON DISTRICT ATTORNEY

130 STUYVESANT PLACE , 10301 TELEPHONE (718) 876-6300

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release on June 8, 2018 Contact: Ryan Lavis (718) 556-7150 [email protected]

DA McMahon Announces Promotions and New Hires to RCDA **Former NYPD Lieutenant joins RCDA as Chief of Detective Investigators**

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Richmond County District Attorney Michael E. McMahon today announced several new promotions and hires to RCDA. Joining the office as Chief of Detective Investigators is former NYPD Lieutenant David J. Nilsen, a veteran of the police department with 27 years of experience. Also new to the office is Assistant District Attorney Jevet T. Johnson, a career prosecutor who has been named Bureau Chief of RCDA’s Special Victim’s Bureau. Additionally, DA McMahon announced that ADA Michele Molfetta has been promoted to Chief of the Narcotics-Investigations Bureau after previously serving as the bureau’s deputy chief. At the same time, ADA Wanda DeOliveira has been named Chief Trial Counsel after previously serving as Chief of the Special Victims Bureau.

“RCDA is committed to bringing in the most skilled people to carry out the important work we do in keeping Staten Island safe, and I am thrilled to have Lt. Commander Nilsen and ADA Johnson join the office as an integral part of my team. We are equally excited to have ADA Molfetta head up our Narcotics-Investigations Bureau to lead our fight against the heroin and opioid epidemic, and ADA DeOliveira in joining the Executive Team as Chief Trial Counsel – her many years of prosecutorial experience makes her invaluable to this office and the people of Staten Island, ” said District Attorney Michael E. McMahon. “The passion and expertise these talented individuals bring to the table will go far in holding criminals accountable, protecting victims of crime, and combating the many issues we face on Staten Island every day.”

Lt. David Nilsen is a 27-year veteran of the NYPD, who, throughout his career in law enforcement, has worked tirelessly to make Staten Island a safer place. He served as Commanding Officer of the Staten Island Homicide Squad from 2006-2014, supervising over 300 non-fatal shootings and over 100 homicide investigations. Prior to that role, Lt. Nilsen served as Commanding Officer of the 120 Precinct Detective Squad, from 2001-2006, providing supervision and guidance for over 3,500 investigations annually. Throughout his distinguished career, Lt. Nilsen was responsible for leading investigations into some of the most notable cases on Staten Island. He supervised the homicide investigation into the deaths of Detective James Nemorin and Detective Rodney Andrews, who were both tragically shot and killed March 10, 2003 while involved in an undercover buy and bust operation on Staten Island. In October 2003, Lt. Nilsen supervised all investigate operations into the crash involving a Staten Island Ferry boat, which claimed the lives of 11 people and seriously injured dozens of others. Additionally, Lt. Nilsen supervised several other high-profile homicides on Staten Island, including the December 2007 investigation into the death of FDNY Fire Marshall Douglas Mercereau; the July 2012 investigation into the death of Simonette Mapes, and the August 2013 investigation into the death of Megan Marotte. Most recently, he served as Lieutenant Commander of the NYPD’s Detective Squad and Commanding Officer of the Cold Case Squad, which is responsible for investigating open unsolved homicides throughout the City. During his tenure in the Cold Case Squad, he supervised investigations into homicide cases which led to arrests being made, including in the death of Sharabia Thomas and the death of Rashawn Brazell. From 2015-2016, Lt. Nilsen worked as Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Hostage Negotiation Team, which assists in crisis situations such as hostage and barricaded persons incidents. He currently resides on Staten Island.

Jevet Johnson began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx DA’s Office, working in the Criminal Court and Grand Jury Bureau from 2001-2004, and then in the Narcotics Bureau from 2004-2012, where she prosecuted over fifteen jury trials ranging from narcotics to homicides. She was also Weekend Supervisor of the Complaint Room from 2008-2013, and worked in the office’s Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Bureau from 2012-2013, where she prosecuted violent sexual assault and child abuse cases, including convicting defendants in a case of a push in robbery of a family at gunpoint where the mother was raped, as well as a case in which a photographer lured women to his home and sexually abused them. After leaving the Bronx DA’s office, Johnson worked as an Agency Attorney for the Department of Education in the Office of the General Counsel, from 2013-2015, where she conducted hearings against teachers and other employees of the Department of Education accused of violating the Chancellor’s Regulations and/or New York State criminal statutes. From 2015-2016, she worked as an ADA in the Westchester County DA’s Office, and, later, worked as an Agency Attorney for the Department of Correction. Johnson earned her law degree in May 2001 from Touro College- Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Huntington, NY.

Michele Molfetta began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Richmond County DA’s Office in September 2005, working in the Criminal Court Bureau. In 2007, Molfetta was transferred to the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in Manhattan, where she prosecuted hundreds of felony narcotics and weapons cases and conducted numerous felony narcotics trials. During her time with the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor in Manhattan, Molfetta worked with various local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including various units of the NYPD, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, and the Strike Force, to conduct complex, multi-jurisdictional, including international, narcotics investigations. She returned to RCDA in 2010, working in the Investigations Bureau where she conducted numerous long-term major narcotics and gang related investigations, which resulted in the recovery of kilogram quantities of narcotics and the arrest and prosecution of over 100 defendants, most of whom were violent felony offenders. During her time as a prosecutor, Molfetta has tried numerous felony cases ranging from complex wiretap investigations to homicides. In early 2016, Molfetta worked as the Deputy Bureau Chief in the Criminal Court Bureau. Later in 2016, Molfetta was promoted to Deputy Bureau Chief of RCDA’s Narcotics-Investigations Bureau, and was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Narcotics-Investigations Bureau, which includes the supervision of all narcotics and gang related prosecutions and investigations, as well as overseeing all drug related diversion programs such as Staten Island Treatment Court and HOPE. She earned her law degree from the New England School of Law in Boston in May 2005. She currently resides on Staten Island.

Wanda DeOliveira graduated from St. John’s University, Staten Island Campus in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. She went on to earn her law degree from St. John’s University School of Law, graduating in 1992. From there, she was admitted to practice and was hired by the Kings County District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney where she worked from 1992 to 1997. In 1997, Ms. DeOliveira left the D.A.’s Office to start her own private law practice on Staten Island, which included civil claims as well as criminal defense work. While working full-time as a private attorney, she had her two daughters in less than a three-year span before returning to being a prosecutor in 2000, this time in the Richmond County District Attorney’s Office under the Honorable William Murphy. During her career at the Staten Island D.A.’s Office she has worked as the Deputy Bureau Chief in the Special Victims Bureau from 2005 to 2008 and then as the Deputy Bureau Chief in the Trials Bureau until 2010, when she was then named Chief Trial Counsel to continue her love of trial advocacy in mentoring the junior assistants with their trials. After the retirement of former Special Victims Bureau Chief Yolanda Rudich, in 2014, Ms. DeOliveira was asked to return to the Special Victims Bureau as the new Bureau Chief, a position she held until July 2017 when she was promoted to the Executive Bureau as Chief Trial Counsel. She has been in the courtroom, on trial, in over seventy five cases during the course of her career as a prosecutor, has tried over 15 homicide cases in Richmond County alone, and has investigated, assigned, and prosecuted hundreds of other murder cases. She was assigned to lead a team of investigators and was the sole prosecutor in the County assigned to review over 150 Cold Case Homicide cases dating back to the 1980s for new DNA evidence. Ms. DeOliveira has been a lead participant in the several of Staten Island’s most noteworthy cases and has personally taken several of them to trial, namely: the double murder /arson of Rocco Mercurio and his wife Linda Torrone on Ward Hill in 2001, sending defendant Mario Mannino to prison for 82 years to life; in 2002, she tried and convicted Elena Kiejlieches for murdering her husband in a mansion on Todt Hill; in 2003, Ms. DeOliveira was one of the four prosecutors assigned to the Death Penalty case against Ronell Wilson for the murders of two undercover NYPD detectives Nemorin and Andrews, and she was instrumental in creating the case that the Eastern District used to ultimately secure the death Penalty against Wilson under the Federal Prosecution; in 2004, she convicted Wayne Decker of the 1987 Cold Case homicide of Vicky Mason; in 2009, she convicted John Galtieri of murdering his ex-wife Jeanne Kane, one of the Kane Triplets of the 1960s notoriety; in 2012, she tried and convicted Carl Allen of a 1999 Cold Case homicide for the brutal murder of Noemi Ortiz; in 2015, she convicted Jonathan Crupi for the stabbing murder of his wife, Simonette Mapes, a beloved New York City High School teacher, and most recently she successfully defeated the insanity defense of Eric Bellucci, convicting him for the murder of both of his parents, which carried a double sentence of life without parole.

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