We were pleased to welcome the new Suffolk County District Attorney to 16 Beacon Street last week, to hear about her formative experiences, her plans for the office, and her take on hiring and management.
Fresh off her historic election last fall, and barely two months into the job, DA Rachael Rollins visited the BBA on March 11 and took questions from Cat Ham, of the Suffolk DA’s Homicide Unit and co-chair of the BBA’s Criminal Law section, and Kate Cook from Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C., as well as from audience members.
After earning a lacrosse scholarship at UMass-Amherst—and then engaging in a legal battle to save the program and other women’s sports at the school by threatening to bring a Title IX discrimination lawsuit—DA Rollins entered law school with a plan to pursue a career in sports law, specifically to become the first female Executive Director of to the National Basketball Players Association. She credited the co-op program at Northeastern Law School with helping her learn more about the field and gain valuable experience. While at NUSL, she interned at the NBPA and with the Boston Celtics After earning an LL.M. at Georgetown, she ultimately landed at the National Labor Relations Board in Boston before joining the firm then known as Bingham McCutchen (now Morgan Lewis). She said that, at Bingham, her work with former Suffolk DA Ralph Martin, the first African-American to hold that post, and her selection to participate in a District Attorney rotation in Plymouth County steered her toward criminal law.
Read more at http://issuespot.bbablogs.org/2019/03/21/suffolk-county-da-rachael-rollins-speaks-at-the-bba/
Earlier this year, Rachael Rollins took office as Suffolk County DA. Many on the left praised her as a progressive reformer, while many on the right portrayed her as a rookie who is soft on crime. Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with WGBH’s legal analyst Daniel Medwed to talk about Rollins’ progress just a few months into her tenure. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Mathieu: Now, the police were very wary of Rollins before she took over. What was the basis for their objections?
Medwed: I think it stemmed from one of her signature campaign pledges, which was to try to clamp down on what she considered to be over-criminalization by targeting 15 low-level crimes committed by first-time offenders — crimes like trespass and shoplifting — and have a presumption not to prosecute them. This rankled the law enforcement establishment, to put it mildly. A group called the National Police Association filed a grievance with the Board of Bar Overseers before Rollins even took office, claiming that her law license should be in jeopardy — that she’s too soft on crime and that’s an ethical violation.
Mathieu: Has the police’s stance against Rollins soften since she took office? Sometimes it’s different when we actually put things into practice.
Medwed: I think so. I think it has softened. That’s my perception, at least. The much-feared revolution has not materialized. She never categorically vowed to decline to prosecute all of these cases, she just said, I’ll presume not to prosecute these low-level cases unless there’s a countervailing consideration, like a public safety risk, and then I’ll march forward. And the data since she took office suggests that she is marching forward in a relatively large percentage of them.
WBUR Radio Boston, March 5, 2019
In the last two months, two 23-year-old women have been allegedly kidnapped from clubs in downtown Boston.
Only one of the victims was found alive. Jassy Correia, a young mother from Lynn, was found dead in the trunk of a car, authorities said.
We talk to Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins about what these high-profile attacks mean for young women in Boston, and what everyone — men and women — can do to prevent violence against women.
Listen to the interview at: https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2019/03/05/jassy-correia-violence-women
By Milton J. Valencia, Boston Globe, Feb. 23, 2019
William Gross was named Boston’s first black police commissioner last year, with widespread community support, and expectations. And Rachael Rollins, the first black woman elected Suffolk district attorney, built her campaign last fall on a promise to bring transparency to the office.
Now, all eyes will be on Rollins and Gross as they collaborate on the first high-profile incident of their tenures: the investigation into a confrontation in Roxbury early Friday that left one man dead and an officer in the hospital with gunshot injuries.
While it may have been overshadowed nationally by healthcare and immigration, criminal justice was easily one of the most important issues on the ballot in 2018. From Colorado to Florida to Louisiana to Michigan to Washington, voters across the nation supported progressive criminal justice reform ballot measures by wide margins. Progressive criminal justice platforms won elections in gubernatorial, attorney general, state legislative, judicial, and district attorney races key to implementing reform. One of the greatest electoral victories for progressive criminal justice reform advocates was that of Rachael Rollins, who became District Attorney of Suffolk County, Massachusetts with over 70% of the vote.
Now the top prosecutor for almost 800,000 people in Boston and its neighboring areas, District Attorney Rollins ran a grassroots campaign focused on racial justice, ending mass incarceration, and the decriminalization of poverty, mental illness, and substance use disorder. She opposes mandatory minimums and cash bail, very much in line with Larry Krasner, the Black Lives Matter attorney elected Philadelphia District Attorney in 2017.
Listen to the podcast at: https://millennialpolitics.co/rachael-rollins-podcast/
January 30, 2019
By Shannon Dooling
Massachusetts’ highest court affirmed Wednesday the murder conviction of a man whose defense attorneys argued had received an unfair trial because they were unable to question state witnesses about their immigration statuses.
Fredys Chicas was convicted more than 10 years ago of beating Jose Santos, 31, to death with a baseball bat in Chelsea at a Christmas Eve party in 2005. Many of the witnesses were in the country illegally at the time of the trial, according to trial documents.
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins applauded the decision, particularly the clarity of the court’s opinion.
Read more at: https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/01/30/sjc-chicas-conviction-witnesses-immigration-status
By Marie Szaniszlo, Boston Herald
January 30, 2019 at 8:03 am
Representatives of more than 30 agencies spanning disciplines including law enforcement, medical and mental-health care, and education met at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Brighton to sign a new memorandum of understanding outlining their responsibilities as members of Support to End Exploitation Now and underscoring their primary ethos: to treat exploited youngsters as victims, rather than criminals.
“In the … years since SEEN’s inception here at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County, not one juvenile in Boston, Chelsea, Revere or Winthrop has been arrested or charged with a prostitution offense,” Rollins told the group. The memorandum of understanding is “a how-to guide for other jurisdictions contemplating a modern approach to an age-old problem.”
Read more at: https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/01/29/group-committed-to-ending-child-sexual-exploitation/
By Maria Cramer, Boston Globe, Jan. 22, 2019
Rachael Rollins, the new Suffolk County district attorney, is blasting Immigration and Customs Enforcement for arresting an undocumented immigrant in a Boston courthouse this month when he showed up for an arraignment on cocaine trafficking charges.
Rollins vowed to launch an investigation to find out how ICE learned about the man’s whereabouts when he went to Suffolk Superior Court on Jan. 7.
Intends to keep victims, families informed
By Taylor Pettaway and Brooks Sutherland, Boston Herald
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said Sunday that as she goes forward in her new position she will align murder charges with what investigators can prove in court, and avoid a “reflex” to file first-degree murder charges on every case that comes through her office.
“I believe that what we need to do is look at everything as not a reflex, first degree, first degree first degree — there are some circumstances where a second-degree charge would be more appropriate,” she told WCVB during it’s Sunday morning “On the Record” news show.
Read more in the Boston Herald at https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/01/13/da-says-murder-charges-will-reflect-what-prosecutors-can-prove-in-court/
Watch the WCVB TV interview at https://www.wcvb.com/article/otr-rachael-rollins-discusses-criminal-justice-reform-what-crimes-should-not-be-prosecuted/25877757
By Maria Cramer, Jan. 3, 2019
Rachael Rollins was sworn in as Suffolk district attorney Wednesday, becoming the first black woman to hold that position in Massachusetts, an achievement she told a packed crowd at Roxbury Community College that should motivate them to chase any goal that seems impossible.
“This is a day for anyone in this room to think about where you are in your life and what you want your life to be,” Rollins said.
New Suffolk County prosecutor sworn in on platform of change
By Michael Jonas, Jan. 2, 2019
RACHAEL ROLLINS, who has broken barriers throughout a two-decade legal career, cracked another one on Wednesday as she became the first woman to serve as Suffolk County district attorney and the first black woman to hold a DA’s office anywhere in the state.
Rollins was sworn in before a packed crowd of several hundred at Roxbury Community College. The auditorium included a who’s who of local and state political figures, headlined by Gov. Charlie Baker, US Sen. Ed Markey, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who all delivered remarks during the ceremony.
Read more at https://commonwealthmagazine.org/criminal-justice/rollins-takes-office-with-reform-agenda/
