John J. Santucci, who as the Queens district attorney from 1977 to 1991 became a lightning rod of controversy in high-profile cases involving a fatal racial attack, a municipal corruption scandal and allegations of lethal police brutality, died on Sunday in Mineola, N.Y. He was 85.
His death was confirmed by a grandson, John T. Santucci. Mr. Santucci gained wide attention in December 1986 after one of the most explosive racially motivated crimes in the city at the time — an attack on three black men in Howard Beach, Queens, by a gang of white teenagers, who chased one man onto a highway, where he was struck and killed by a car.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/
