Today’s article by Andrea Estes, “As prosecutor, Patrick rarely in court,” is sloppy work not up to the normally high standards of the reporter or her employer. Estes filed another article today and also teamed up with Frank Phillips to cover the debate last night. Her editors should ease up a bit and give her time to read through her work and make sure what she writes make sense.
The essence of the article’s claim is that there are real prosecutors and bureaucrats. The Assistant District Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys who appear in court are the former. They “put people in jail.” The latter, people like Attorney General Tom Reilly, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, and former U.S. Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick — the bosses who generally do not appear court because they set strategy and manage their departments — are not real prosecutors and do not put people in jail.
“‘There is a difference in people’s minds between a paper-pushing prosecutor and a real courtroom prosecutor,’ said Thomas Hoopes, a former assistant district attorney in Middlesex and a lawyer in private practice,” according to the article.
The comment by Hoopes may be true enough, but the overall premise is absurd. Reilly, Sullivan, and Patrick in his time, are and were prosecutors just as much as their Assistants. They put people in prison as surely as the subordinates who physically stand in court as their representatives. They decide whom to prosecute, how to argue, and what pleas to accept. Indeed, in a formal sense, the chief prosecutor sends everyone sentenced at the behest of their department to prison.
I doubt very much that Hoopes, one of the most highly regarded trial lawyers in Boston, wants to argue that Reilly, whom he worked for for 10 years, is not a real prosecutor — but that is where the article drags him.
The Globe should publish a clarification that any inference created by this piece that the able people who run the legal divisions of our law enforcement system, including Attorney General Tom Reilly, U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, and former Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick, are not real prosecutors is regretted and disavowed.
…of that liberal media at work!
This article is one of the most idiotic pieces I’ve seen in a while. Seriously.
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This makes absolutely no sense. It shows pretty baldly that Estes has no clue about how a legal case works. The courtroom experience is only a tiny sliver of the total work to be done on a case. Does she think it’s like TV, where the lawyers play “gotcha” games with each other and the witnesses and the outcome hinges on every word? Apparently she doesn’t realize that the vast majority of cases are won and lost outside the courtroom, where the bulk of the work is done.
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This doesn’t even get into how important it is to have competent people who choose the correct strategy of the case and review/amend research done by subordinates. Yet Estes contends that the work Patrick/Reilly/Sullivan, etc. did does not constitute prosecuting criminals. What’s more accurate is that Estes’ piece does not constitute journalism.
don’t these people ever watch Law and Order?
Obviously people don’t know how the legal system works. The Globe should know better, but then again they have to find someway to keep the race interesting after Deval’s 27 point lead hit the papers.
was the largest federal investigation ever lead before 9/11. The argument laid out in this article is just silly. The other article about Klass is just as foolish. His appearance add’s nothing to Healey’s campaign.
…because while I agree with your premise, Tom Reilly actually does have a ton of courtroom experience. He may never have been in court as Attorney General or even as District Attorney—maybe even as First District Attorney, but he tried a ton of cases in the 80’s.
But now he, and every other prosecutor who does not appear in the courtroom, is being labelled, like Patrick, somehow not a “real” prosecutor. Why I should have to apologize to him for maintaining that his current position is just as prosecutorial as his previous ones escapes me. Maybe you can explain.
that there are many prosecutors that NEVER stepped into the court room and are damn good and well respected prosecutors (that debate certainly was waged here in the early Middlesex DA race with regards to Festa and Barrios).
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I thought your point was Sullivan, Patrick and others (Bill Weld?, Bill Delehunt and Bill Keating) were examples of that. Tom Reilly was not–sure he did not step into a courtroom as AG or DA, but he did as an ADA.
Whether they stepped into the courtroom in the past or not. The Globe’s argument is that there are paper pushers (the bosses) and real prosecutors (who “put people in jail”). It doesn’t matter whether the former might have been real prosecutors once upon a time, like Reilly: by the time they sit in the top seat, they have become paper pushers, are no longer real prosecutors, and no longer put people in jail. This is totally idiotic and demonstrates (a) a basic misunderstanding of the way our prosecutorial system works, (b) a desperate effort to stir the pot and generate a more competitve race in order to sell newspapers, (c) sloppy journalism, (d) a tired reporter, and (e) a bad job of editing … or perhaps all five.
A Google news search on her name shows Andrea Estes has primarily been Healy’s spearcarrier during the campaign, quoting Tim O’Brien, Healey’s campaign manager, in every story about Deval Patrick, and essentially letting him choose the angle. For example, she’s responsible for the big-deal story on Deval furtively meeting the evil Sal and Trav in a dark alley to discuss their evil plans.
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I’m sure this will all be taken care of when the Globe is sold…
When Jack Welch moves his office to Morrissey Blvd. Some interesting reading here and here. And when you get through with those, run some Google searches on Welch’s recent diverce proceedings for light entertainment.