In D.A.’s race, Cahillane and Sullivan say campaigning means defining the office
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NORTHAMPTON - Out on the campaign trail, the two candidates for Northwestern district attorney say they've met a lot of people who don't know much about what the job involves.
Is the district attorney a prosecutor or a defender? Does he or she just work in court, or is there more to it?
This lack of understanding among some voters means that each of the candidates - Michael A. Cahillane and David E. Sullivan - is educating people about the position while trying to persuade them that he is the best one for it.
And there's not much time left. The election that will essentially decide the race is Tuesday. Both men are Democratic candidates for the post, and because there are no Republican candidates, the primary will determine the next district attorney for Hampshire and Franklin counties unless somebody emerges to wage a vigorous write-in campaign.
The district attorney's job, which pays $148,843 a year, is to oversee roughly 8,000 criminal prosecutions per year in the Juvenile, District and Superior courts around Hampshire and Franklin counties. But the office also plays a major role in shaping crime prevention efforts.
Based on interviews and observations of the candidates over the past few months, here's a rundown of how the candidates see the job of the district attorney.
Cahillane argues that his experience prosecuting criminals and sticking up for crime victims makes him the natural choice. Sullivan says he would bring valuable management skills Cahillane lacks.
So it follows that the candidates differ on the role of the district attorney and how he should divide his time between court work and managerial duties.
"I think it's important for the D.A. to have the ability to prosecute a case, to be able to go into the courtroom and lead by example," said Cahillane, who in his 10 years as a prosecutor handled more than 200 criminal cases in both District and Superior courts, from animal cruelty to murders.
Sullivan has said he would occasionally try cases, but views the district attorney primarily as an administrator - and he notes that District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel rarely tried cases during her 17-year tenure. Sullivan says he will build a strong team of assistant district attorneys to serve as liaisons with law enforcement and community leaders and will train junior prosecutors, among other proposals.
Sullivan handled criminal and civil cases for 16 years, including a stint as Easthampton's city attorney, before he was elected register of probate in 2002. His experience as a prosecutor is limited to a single drunken driving case he handled as a special prosecutor for the Northwestern district attorney's office more than a decade ago. He doesn't see that as a problem.
"When you're an attorney you know how to try both sides of the case," Sullivan said. "I think what you bring is the trial skills that you have, the knowledge of evidence, the knowledge of how the criminal process works. It's no different from either position."
Cahillane, on the other hand, has never been a defense lawyer, but like Sullivan he says his experience gives him a window onto the other side.
"Every time that I have to evaluate a case ... I have to look at it from both perspectives and identify where the potential problems are and what's the right result," he said. "I have to look at it with the eye of a defense attorney as well, and see where the challenges will come from and make sure that the case is solid."
Sullivan says that the district attorney should be a vocal advocate on the state level for funding of local police departments and crime prevention efforts. Cahillane differs, saying the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association already does that on a cooperative basis, "so you're not pitting (one) district attorney against another."
Protecting children
The suicide of South Hadley High School freshman Phoebe Prince and the rise of the Internet and social media have put issues of child protection front and center in the campaign.
Both Cahillane and Sullivan decline to discuss pending court cases, such as those against five South Hadley High School students who allegedly tormented Prince, because the new district attorney will take over those cases.
They agree the district attorney should play a role in addressing bullying in schools, in the community and online by sponsoring training programs for students, teachers and others.
Cahillane has proposed creating an anonymous online reporting system for students to alert officials to bullying without fear of repercussions to themselves.
To protect children from Internet predators, Cahillane says, he hopes to expand NetSmartz, a training program for first- and second-graders developed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"It seems like such a young age," he said, "but as we know a lot of them are more proficient than their parents in using the computer."
Cahillane has already given the training at Jackson Street School, where he was once a student, and other elementary schools around the district.
Sullivan says he would assign more prosecutors and resources to physical and sexual abuse cases involving children. He said only one assistant district attorney handles such cases now.
Cahillane says he also hopes to expand a pilot program designed to help children brought into the Juvenile Court system for offenses like drug or alcohol possession, shoplifting and disturbing school as well as less serious assault charges. The program encourages attorneys, court personnel and social services staff to take "a holistic look at the child" to address issues like substance abuse, anger management or abusive or neglectful households.
Cahillane says that thus far 84 percent of children involved in the program, established by the Legislature in 2004 in Hampshire and Essex counties, have not re-offended.
Community prosecution
One new idea Sullivan has proposed for the district attorney's office is community prosecution, a model he says was pioneered by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder when he was chief federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., 15 years ago.
Sullivan says he would assign some prosecutors to individual cities or towns, or groups of communities (less-populated areas like the Hilltowns and the North Quabbin towns), to give them an opportunity to forge closer relationships with police and local leaders. That way, he says, when it's time for the prosecutors to take a case to court, "they're not just looking at a file, they actually know the dynamics of the community."
Cahillane maintains the model wouldn't work here, where District Court prosecutors process an average of 35 cases a day, and spend much of their evenings preparing for the next day's hearings.
"To expect them to be out in the community takes away from our core function of prosecution," he said.
Cahillane says it's the district attorney's job to forge ties with community leaders. "I already have those relationships," he said.
Controversial cases
Sullivan has also hammered on cases he says were mishandled by Scheibel - Cahillane's boss until recently.
Both Cahillane and Sullivan have spoken of a need to restore public trust in the district attorney's office in the wake of one of its most controversial cases in recent years.
The prosecution of Jason Vassell on stabbing charges and the treatment of the two men with whom he fought in his University of Massachusetts dormitory, led critics to charge prosecutors with singling out a black student while letting two white men off easily.
"This is going to have to get resolved by the next district attorney," said Sullivan, who contributed $100 to Vassell's legal defense fund. "Someone's going to have to look at this and say it's either true or not true, and be real about it."
Both candidates say they plan to create civil rights advisory boards to help the district attorney's office address sensitivity and hate crimes. Sullivan says he also hopes to make the staff of 26 prosecutors more racially diverse.
Scheibel made another series of bad calls, Sullivan says, in the case that came to be known as "pottygate." She convened a grand jury to investigate after Clerk Magistrate Christopher Reavey asked a court officer to retrieve a rest room key from the prosecutors' office suite at Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court.
A judge called the probe "dubious," and ultimately it went nowhere. Sullivan called it a "complete waste of resources and a gross misjudgment."
Asked by Sullivan at a debate if he would have acted similarly, Cahillane said he would. "If there was a break-in at one of my offices, I would follow up on it, absolutely."
Other issues
The candidates have outlined similar stances on other issues that have come up on the campaign trail, including viewing the decriminalization of marijuana as a mixed bag. They agree the law should be toughened so offenders give their real names to police and minors get referred to drug counseling.
Both say casino gambling should be legalized, as long as steps are taken to mitigate crime that might come with gambling.
Sullivan says local police should take a hands-off approach to federal immigration laws, or risk alienating the immigrant community, while Cahillane says it's appropriate to notify the government if, in the course of an investigation, police discover a person living in the U.S. illegally.
James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.
