Editor’s note: This article is by Miranda Orso, of the Waterbury Record, in which it was first published Oct. 10, 2014.
The race for Washington County state’s attorney is heating up as Election Day approaches Nov. 4.
Republican Tom Kelly, 60, of Barre City is seeking re-election to the job he’s held since 2007; he’s being challenged by Democrat Scott Williams, 49, of Berlin.
In developments this week, the mayors of both Barre and Montpelier endorsed Williams, the challenger, kicking off a debate over the role of the county’s chief prosecutor.
In an interview, Kelly said he gains new knowledge every day that helps him do a better job as state’s attorney.
“This is a position that requires some good judgment. Who to charge and what the charge is are the biggest decisions, and the more experience a prosecutor has, the better,” he said.
Williams said he will focus on three main issues if elected — drug policy, justice for victims and leadership in the community.
“We need to be smarter about our approach to crime. We need to be looking at public health and acknowledge that drug addiction is a public health problem that shows up in criminal behaviors,” Williams said.
Kelly, who’s married and has six children, has been a prosecutor in Vermont since the late 1980s and a deputy state’s attorney since the late 1990s, when he worked alongside Terry Trono, the longtime Washington County state’s attorney.
Trono died in 2004 after a two-year battle with cancer and his successor let Kelly go. Two years later, Kelly ran for state’s attorney, and won.
Williams joined the U.S. Navy and later attended law school at Temple University in Philadelphia.
He is married, has two children and founded his own law firm in Barre, where focuses on civil litigation and administrative proceedings.
Pretrial screening
Kelly said he is looking forward to the results of a pretrial screening law passed earlier this year.
When a criminal case develops, Kelly said, a pretrial monitor will screen people accused of crimes and provide information that will help the courts make decisions on such things as bail, conditions of release, and possible drug or mental health issues.
The result, Kelly said, will be to speed up cases that can otherwise clog up the court system.
“It’s good to have screening like this done,” he said. When it makes sense, suspects can be sent to programs that will help them deal with drug and mental health issues.
That approach “can help prevent people from getting into trouble for certain low-level offenses and hopefully keep them out of jail for more serious crimes,” Kelly said.
Williams said he supports the pretrial monitoring system and hopes it’s more effective than what he calls the delayed response by the state’s attorney office to these issues in the past.
Williams wants better utilization of the Washington County Treatment Court, which deals with criminal offenders who have drug problems, and wants to talk with police about how the system can improve. The idea is that treating the drug problem will often solve the crime problem.
Williams said police often think drug court decisions are too lenient.
“The police are looking at people who’ve committed burglaries and they don’t necessarily agree that, because someone has been clean for a month, we should applaud them,” Williams said.
Kelly said he’s pleased with the drug-court program, which provides an intensive look at how the state can better address drug-related issues and crimes.
Williams said he’d like more time and focus devoted to victims’ rights.
Washington County already has two full-time victims’ advocates, but Williams said that “victims don’t get a good shake in our court system. There are so many cases that aren’t being resolved and you can’t keep all those balls in the air. So, often, the victims don’t get a chance to speak.”
Both candidates said they will build and strengthen relationships with local and state law-enforcement agencies.
Both Williams and Kelly, who served in the U.S. Army, said their military experience and leadership skills will help in the role of the state’s attorney.
“I think it’s important in a job like this to remember it’s not a political job and I never make decisions based solely on politics. It’s about being fair, thorough and having experience,” Kelly said.
