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Professors Galietta and O’Donnell Quoted in Media Coverage on Shooting of Hofstra Student

Professor Michelle Galietta and Eugene O’Donnell were quoted in several news accounts regarding the shooting of a Hofstra University student during a home invasion in Hempstead, Long Island. During the confrontation with the perpetrator, the police accidentally shot and killed the student.

Associated Press article published in the San Francisco Chronicle

CBS Channel 2 article

New York Times article

Professor Galietta heads the Forensic Psychology Doctoral Program at John Jay. Dr. Galietta is a clinician and researcher specializing in the assessment and treatment of violence. She is currently Co-Principal Investigator of a project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health designed to refine and evaluate various treatments for violent offenders, particularly those who engage in stalking. The study compares standard anger management treatment with Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral intervention. Dr. Galietta was a lead investigator on the study “Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the U.S. 1950-2002.” Her areas of expertise include the treatment of violent individuals, assessment and treatment of severe personality disorders, suicidality in correctional settings, non-suicidal self-injury (e.g., cutting), stalking, trauma and PTSD, women who kill their children, and the insanity defense. She is an expert in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, a treatment for individuals with severe emotion regulation problems. She has developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy programs in Inpatient and Outpatient Hospital Settings, as well as various forensic settings. She has consulted to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, as well as national and local correctional settings and hospitals. She has conducted training for the New York City Police Officers on communicating with mentally ill individuals, as well as hostage negotiations.

Professor O’Donnell of the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration served as a police officer with the New York City Police Department, receiving 14 department awards for outstanding police service. Upon graduation from law school, he was appointed as an Assistant District Attorney in the Queens District Attorney’s Office. He later served as a senior prosecutor and supervisory prosecutor in the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney’s office. He has also been Director of Intake and Advocacy at the New York City Commission on Human Rights. In 1994, he was law and police studies coordinator for John Jay’s branch campus at the Police Academy in Puerto Rico.  Professor O’Donnell also assisted with the launch of the NYPD Police Studies program in 2001, which provides college credits to New York City police personnel. He was coordinator of the New York State Law Enforcement Executive Institute from 2005 to 2008 (a leadership program for New York State law enforcement executives), is a certified New York state police trainer, has been a police academy instructor, and has taught in the Criminal Investigation Course for NYC detectives. He has written textbook chapters on police civilian review and minority-police relationships and is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement. In 2005, he was a Visiting Professor at the United Kingdom’s Bramshill Police College where he researched community justice initiatives. He is Co-Chairperson, with Professor Mark Rosen, of the annual “Criminal Law Update: A Program for Members of the Bar.”