LAT: Kerry's Crime-Fighting Early Days (good article)

[DeepModem Mom]

THE RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Kerry's Crime-Fighting Early Days
His postwar years in a D.A.'s office honed his skills as a tough-minded leader, supporters say.

By James Rainey, Times Staff Writer


(As assistant prosecutor, and operating head of the D.A.'s office,) Kerry vigorously pursued funding from the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration....Kerry saw the money as fuel for change. He hired a full-time grant writer to go after the funds. Nearly $4 million flowed to the office in a single year, and the money helped expand the staff to more than 100 lawyers.

Two attributes stood out about the new hires. First, Kerry sought out top-notch lawyers, including some who turned away from more lucrative work in private firms or from the greater prestige of the U.S. attorney's office. And for the first time, many were women.

Rikki Klieman, a young lawyer who had worked in a corporate firm and served a clerkship with a federal judge, said Kerry lured her to the district attorney's office by persuading her that she "would be working on the side of the just."

"For a lot of us children of the 1960s, we felt this was a golden moment," said Klieman, a Court TV analyst and wife of Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton. "We wanted to make a difference, and here was this charismatic leader to follow."

Kerry also used the federal funds to expand the office's specialized units — hiring professionals who focused on helping victims of domestic violence, pursuing white-collar criminals and bringing violent felons quickly to trial.

Such units, commonplace now, were novel 30 years ago. One made a particular mark by pledging to bring serious cases to trial within 90 days, rather than shoveling them into the maw of other pending criminal cases, said Peter W. Agnes Jr., then a prosecutor with Kerry and now a Worcester Superior Court judge.

Even the upstate Lowell Sun — the conservative newspaper that had excoriated Kerry as little more than a carpetbagging hippie during his 1972 run for Congress — warmed to him. The newspaper editorialized that Kerry had "turned the District Attorney's office from a traditional, non-aggressive agency into a first-rate, exciting prosecutor's staff that is now among the best in the state."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-prosecutor18jul18,1,5706553.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Judi Lynn]

1. We've never known about this part of Kerry's public life. This is great

material! From the article:

And it was there that he displayed qualities that would become trademarks of his almost 20-year U.S. Senate career — a willingness to work long hours, an enormous appetite for the details of policy and an interest in digging deep into controversial topics.

It did not surprise his fellow lawyers that Kerry went on to lead a series of congressional inquiries — into alleged drug-running by Nicaraguan Contra rebels, the fate of prisoners of war and those missing in action in Vietnam, and the corrupt Bank of Credit and Commerce International. More than any legislation, those probes have been the signature of his Senate career.
(snip)

Kerry and Assistant Dist. Atty. Roanne Sragow left the office to start their own law firm. They developed a thriving practice. Among their victories was a successful appeal on behalf of a Boston man, who spent 16 years in prison for a murder they showed he did not commit.

Republican strategists say they intend, when they focus on law and order, to talk less about Kerry's record in Middlesex County and more about his record in the Senate and his current positions.
(snip/...)

So Kerry has an outstanding background, and the Republicans believe they want to overlook it. Interesting, isn't it?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Interesting especially when you contrast background of their candidate!

[lolly]

5. Now, what was AWOL up to all this time?

Was this when he was still snorting, or was he just an alcoholic, abusive husband while Kerry was putting in all these hours in the pursuit of justice?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. The LA Times usually gives we Dem's good articles.

[merh]

4. kick

:bounce:

[struggle4progress]

6. and once again

:kick:

[merh]

7. kick again