Darcel’s
Story
Growing up, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark often heard her neighbors say, “You should talk to Ms. Clark” because her mother Viola, was the community’s problem-solver.
Viola was the person who knew how to register people to vote, how to stand up to NYCHA management, and how to advocate for students. Despite suffering from sickle cell anemia throughout her life, she was a passionate community activist who encouraged her kids to strive for more and always give back. Viola lost her long battle with chronic illness in 1992 but her dedication and compassion still guide Darcel as she serves the Bronx.
Darcel personifies Bronx determination and grit. She is the product of our city’s public housing and public schools. She has experienced the anguish of having family members suffering from addiction and mental illness as well as the challenges of navigating the city’s support networks to help them.
A lifelong New Yorker, Darcel was born at Metropolitan Hospital and grew up in the Bronx’s Soundview Houses, where her dad worked as a caretaker, shop steward and proud member of Teamsters Local 237. She is the oldest of three with two brothers, one a self-taught musician and the other an athlete.
Darcel attended NYC public schools and graduated from Harry S. Truman High School in Coop City. She witnessed a violent attack on her way home from Truman High and had to testify in front of a grand jury. The experience motivated her to become a lawyer and advocate for victims.
Darcel was the first member of her family to attend college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College and was the first Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar. She went on to attend law school at historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she served as class president for all three years.
Coming Home to Serve Our Community
Darcel returned home to the Bronx after law school to work in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office as an Assistant District Attorney. She prosecuted violent crimes, served as supervisor of the Narcotics Bureau and as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Court Bureau. During that period, for a brief time, she became a foster parent to her niece and nephew and helped raise them with the help of her husband, an NYPD detective.
In 1999, she left the District Attorney’s Office after her appointment by the Mayor of the City of New York to become a judge. Over the next 16 years on the bench, Darcel served as an Associate Justice for the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department; a New York State Supreme Court Justice in Bronx County; and a Criminal Court Judge in Bronx and New York Counties.
Giving Up the Bench in Hopes of Bringing Justice to the Bronx - The New York Times
Fighting for the Bronx as Our District Attorney
In 2015, Darcel had the opportunity to return to the Office she loved and where she began her legal career. She ran for Bronx District Attorney and with her historic win, Darcel became the first woman in that position and the first African American woman to be an elected District Attorney in New York State. She was humbled to be re-elected by the people of the Bronx in 2019. She remains the only woman of color to serve as an elected District Attorney in the Empire State.
As Bronx District Attorney, Darcel has modernized and retooled the office to deliver public safety, compassion for victims and fairness to defendants: holding offenders accountable with the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, expanding the Crime Victims Assistance Bureau’s services for victims and witnesses, strengthening her relationship with her Bronx neighbors with the hiring of Community Engagement Coordinators in the Community Affairs Bureau, creating the Conviction Integrity Bureau to investigate wrongful convictions, establishing the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau as well as a Public Integrity Bureau to address violence and corruption in the jail, and forming a robust Community Justice Bureau to offer alternatives to incarceration.
Darcel leads the Bronx District Attorney’s Office by pursuing justice with integrity, through the lens of lived experiences. She will never forget where she came from.