Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has cancer.
The borough’s top prosecutor dropped the bombshell on Tuesday, but his office is refusing to say what type, how advanced it is, or when the 50-year-old was first diagnosed, claiming further details regarding the elected official’s health are “private.”
“We’re not going beyond the statement,” spokeswoman Charisma Troiano said in response to several questions.
Chief Assistant Eric Gonzalez will act in Thompson’s stead when the prosecutor is absent for treatment or recovery, according to the statement. Thompson has no absences planned yet, Troiano said.
Thompson unseated longtime district attorney Charles Hynes in 2013, took office in January 2014, and his term expires at the end of 2017.
Gonzalez was born and raised in Brooklyn, has been a prosecutor for 21 years, and previously served as the office’s trial bureau chief in Flatbush, Sunset Park, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, and Coney Island, according to information from Thompson’s office. Thompson appointed him chief assistant in fall 2014.
