By: Nick Carraway

A political firestorm has erupted in Nassau County after Democratic district attorney candidate Nicole Aloise accused incumbent DA Anne Donnelly of driving out nearly 90 prosecutors since taking office in 2022 – creating what Aloise called a “toxic, dictatorial” environment, the New York Post reported.

Aloise, a former assistant district attorney herself, held a press conference outside the Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola on Friday, where she blasted Donnelly’s leadership style and claimed the office has lost its commitment to true justice. “I left the Nassau DA’s office after truly believing I would be there for life,” she said. “But once Anne Donnelly took office – the job changed. It was no longer about justice. It was about her own agenda,” the NY Post reported.

Aloise, who stepped down in 2023, said she was among a wave of roughly 90 prosecutors who either quit voluntarily or were forced out, citing an atmosphere of control, mismanagement, and politicization. She claimed her own departure was triggered in part by Donnelly’s refusal to provide resources for expanding a homicide investigation into a wider conspiracy case.

The criticism didn’t go unanswered. Donnelly’s campaign swiftly pushed back, labeling Aloise and other former staffers as “ethically challenged, soft-on-crime prosecutors.” “The only exodus of attorneys, thankfully, has been by prosecutors like Nicole Aloise who don’t align with our tough-on-crime mission,” campaign spokesperson Mike Deery told the NY Post.

Deery also emphasized that under Donnelly’s leadership, Nassau has been repeatedly ranked among the safest counties in America – though critics pointed out that those rankings rely on data from years before Donnelly took office.

Former prosecutors who left under Donnelly’s tenure shared similar concerns in private messages to Aloise, according to the Post. They alleged a collapse in collaboration, shrinking support for long-term investigations, and a culture that placed public relations above casework. One anonymous former ADA told the Post, “You can either treat us like s–t or pay us like s–t – Donnelly did both.”

Adding fuel to the political fire, Aloise cited a 44% spike in major crimes during Donnelly’s first two years – the worst rates since 2013 – and accused her of overseeing the lowest felony conviction rate since 2014. Although county officials have recently touted a 25% drop in major crimes at the start of 2025, Aloise argued those numbers don’t erase the leadership failures and staff turnover that have rocked the DA’s office.

Some Republican officials, meanwhile, have blamed rising crime during the period on external factors such as the Biden administration’s border policies and New York’s bail reform laws – not on Donnelly herself, the NY Post noted.

The DA’s office defended Donnelly’s record, saying she’s rebuilding the team with prosecutors who support her aggressive law-and-order vision. “Under DA Donnelly’s watch, we are restoring public trust and focusing on community safety,” Deery told the Post.

Donnelly’s team also went after Aloise’s own past, pointing to a 2021 ethics complaint filed against her by a group of law professors, accusing her of misconduct during her time as a Queens ADA. The complaint, linked to her handling of cases presided over by her father, Justice Michael Aloise, was later dismissed, the NY Post confirmed.

Aloise’s campaign fired back, stating, “If Anne Donnelly believed she had so many unethical employees, she should have fired them – not driven them out by fostering a hostile workplace.” They also disputed Donnelly’s public safety claims, noting that the stats cited predate her administration.