Brooklyn Prosecutor Keeps Job Despite Blackface Photos on Facebook

Marrus, now 25, uploaded the photos to Facebook six years ago when he was an undergraduate student.

By Jorge Rivas Jul 10, 2012

Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Justin Marrus, son of [NY Supreme Court Judge Alan D. Marrus](http://www.nycourtsystem.com/Applications/JudicialDirectory/Bio.php?ID=7015951) apologized Monday for pictures that surfaced of him dressed in black face and simulating prison rape. Marrus, now 25, uploaded the photos to Facebook six years ago when he was an undergraduate student. [Gothamist.com](http://gothamist.com/2012/07/09/should_brooklyn_adas_put_blackface.php#photo-3) published screen shots from Marrus’ Facebook photo album Monday. The pictures disappeared after the website contacted Marrus. "When we reached out to Marrus he ‘passed on speaking’ to us but did not deny the photographs were his–and the Facebook page quickly disappeared after we hung up," [wrote Gothamist’s Garth Johnston.](http://gothamist.com/2012/07/09/should_brooklyn_adas_put_blackface.php#photo-3) In one picture — from an album called "Halloween" — Marrus sports blackface, a wig made of what appears to be dreadlocks and a tie-dyed T-shirt. "What part of Jamaica you from mon? da beach mon," the caption reads. A second photo — from an album called "Courthouse for 4th of July” — shows Marrus and another man simulating sex in what looks to be a cell with white bars. "While in prison . . . made me do unspeakable acts with . . ." the caption reads, with the two names blurred out by Gothamist. In a third "white trash brothers" photo — from an album called "Ahhh college" — Marrus sports a confederate flag tattoo. "This is something he did about six years ago while he was in college," [DA spokesman Jerry Schmetterer told the NY Post](http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/ada_red_faced_over_blackface_OTDAjuzMdIovY3fNGrOaCK#ixzz20EmlSpQa). "He apologized. He admits it was childish and inappropriate." District Attorney Charles Hynes accepted Marrus’ apology, said Schmetterer. Marrus is expected to keep his job. In October 2010, [Marrus’s father sentenced a white cop who was driving while intoxicated and killed a black pedestrian](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/nyregion/28dwi.html) to only 90 days in jail. [Marrus cited ](http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-10-08/news/27077591_1_nypd-jail-term-vehicular-manslaughter)"the alcohol consumption of the victim [and] the fact that she walked out onto a rainy street" in the dark as reasons the cop didn’t get a harsher penalty.