A candidate for Queens District Attorney had a tumultuous 23-month tenure at the Civilian Complaint Review Board that forced at least two former employees into therapy.
The former female senior staffers said Mina Malik created an atmosphere of paranoia and hostility within the police watchdog agency. Their comments come two months after the city agreed to pay $30,000 to Winsome Thelwell, a current CCRB employee who said in a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit that Malik had unfairly passed her over for a promotion in 2015 to chief of investigations. The payout has not been previously been reported.

“Mina created a situation where if you didn’t tell her something you’d be in trouble,” one source said. “Everyone at the office was scared. She just was so vindictive.”
Malik has touted her 15 years of experience as an assistant district attorney in Queens, work for former Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson and role as executive director of the CCRB until November 2016. The race could result in a major shift in criminal justice in Queens, where outgoing District Attorney Richard Brown has taken a tough approach to crimes like marijuana possession and turnstile-jumping.