Charles J. "Joe" Hynes is the current District Attorney of Kings County, New York. In his childhood, he attended St. Ann's Academy in New York City (now Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens). Hynes received his JD from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens.

Now in his fifth term, Hynes was first elected to office in 1989. After working for the Legal Aid Society, he joined the Kings County District Attorney's office in 1969, where he served as an Assistant District Attorney. Two years later he was appointed as Chief of the Rackets Bureau, subsequent to which he was appointed as First Assistant District Attorney.

In 1975, then New York Governor Hugh Carey and Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz appointed Hynes as Special State Prosecutor to investigate nursing home fraud. Hynes’ office launched a comprehensive attack on Medicaid fraud, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit eventually became a national model, cited in a report of the House Select Committee on Aging as the best in the country. Hynes testified before Congress in 1976 in favor of legislation establishing state fraud control units and providing federal funding. The legislation became law in 1977, and the following year Hynes was elected the first president of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units. Now, 48 states have Medicaid Fraud Control Units.