Hope Reichbach, the 22-year-old communications director for City Council Member Steve Levin, was found dead in her downtown Brooklyn apartment yesterday. An autopsy is being performed today, but a source tells the Brooklyn Paper that she overdosed on prescription drugs. Levin issued a statement, "Hope was a wonderful, vivacious, and tough young woman and a beautiful soul who cared deeply about her community and her family. We are deeply saddened by her passing and will miss her more than words can ever describe."
The Brooklyn Paper also reports, "Reichbach was last seen at her last act of official civic duty, overseeing Levin’s Boerum Hill traffic task force meeting at the Belarusian Church on Atlantic Avenue on Wednesday night." Police discovered her body when they were called to her home on Schermerhorn Street yesterday.
Reichbach, who grew up in Boerum Hill and attended Hunter College High School and NYU, was the daughter of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach. She had run for 52nd district leader last year on a reform platform, but she lost to incumbent Jo Anne Simon. (Reichbach was still encouraged by the fact that she got 40% of the vote.) City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Levin also said, "A bright young woman who was at the start of a career in public service is gone too soon.”
