BRONX D.A.: About the Book

"Sometimes you know when you've reached your breaking point. Mine came on September 5th, 2000, at approximately seven in the evening. I was a felony prosecutor in the Domestic Violence and Sex Crimes Unit of the Bronx District Attorney's office." I had just finished interviewing a six-year-old autistic boy who watched his sister get stabbed to death that morning. Her head was barely attached to her neck and her right eye was gouged out. He was alone in the apartment with her for about a half hour. When I finished the interview, I went back to my office. It was seven p.m. Everyone else had gone home for the evening. I sat in my office and cried."

So begins the true crime memoir of Sarena Straus, a young assistant district attorney working in an area of The Bronx with one of America's highest crime and poverty rates.

Unlike other books written by prosecutors and lawyers, Bronx D.A. is not a collection of war stories and vignettes, but rather is one woman's journey in the war against violence. Straus takes readers deep inside the tough, gritty world of criminal drama, where they meet the broken and triumphant women and children who crossed her path.

The stories are not pretty, but Sarena unflinchingly describes the mean streets of The Bronx: the borough's gruesome homicide scenes, its battered and abused people, and the courtrooms, hospitals, and police precincts that deal with these crimes every day.

Sarena's cases are disturbing, her days full of child molesters, serial rapists, psychopathic batterers, murderers. As grim as her job is, there are moments of relief as she shares the warm camaraderie that developed among those on the front lines. Ultimately, this book is hopeful, reminding the reader that there are still everyday heroes whose only reward is helping another human being in times of desperate need.

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Prologue

Chapter 1