Madeline Brame testified during a field hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee in New York.
A woman who sought justice for her son’s murder said she and her family were treated “like garbage” by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
On Monday, Madeline Brame spoke at a House Judiciary Committee field hearing in New York City about the death of her son and the subsequent legal struggle that lasted years. Brame criticized not only Bragg’s actions in the case but the whole New York legal system, claiming that millions of dollars were being spent even as crime rates rose.
By doing so, Bragg has allowed “all types of criminal elements free to do what they want, when they want, however they want, to whomever they want, with no consequences – no deterrence,” as Brame stated. “Organizations receiving millions and billions of our tax dollars are doing nothing to deter this crime.”
She went on to say that unless “soft policing organizations” could provide “measurable outcomes of the effectiveness of what they are doing with our tax dollars,” no further federal funds should be allocated to them. And if this DA is getting any government assistance at all, stop it immediately so he has to really perform his job and go after criminals.
In 2018, Army Sgt. Hason Correa, Brame’s son, was stabbed nine times in front of his father. It was claimed that Mary Saunders, together with her brother and another guy, attacked him. Bragg’s office spent almost four years investigating the matter but was ultimately unable to show that Saunders had willfully helped in Correa’s murder.
Mary Saunders, the murder victim’s sister, had her indictment dropped and was instead charged with assault with a shoe and given credit for time already served by the court. According to Brame, Travis Stewart had his charge for gang assault and murder dropped, and he was given a sentence for attempted gang assault instead.
When asked to elaborate, Brame said, “clearly, on video, both Saunders and Stewart were participating in the brutal, savage slaughter of my son.”
She reportedly said, “This is the atrocity, this is the horror,” to the New York Post. It’s not just me, either. Countless more, in the hundreds of thousands, share our pain. We’re being thrown in the trash. It’s like the murderer becomes the victim and the victim becomes the murderer.
Later, New York Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler brought up the fact that two of the killers of Correa had already been convicted and were serving life terms.
In an effort to shed light on the crime situation in New York City, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) held a field hearing on Monday, during which one of the numerous witnesses was Brame. Jordan has stated that Bragg should prioritize punishing violent crime before prosecuting ex-President Donald Trump for alleged hush-money payments related to romances he allegedly had with an adult film actress and a former Playmate model.