Politics & Government

5 Takeaways From Chat with Middlesex DA Marian Ryan

Rep. Jay Kaufman and DA Marian Ryan spoke on a wide variety of topics including cyber bullying, the Dookhan Lab scandal and domestic violence.

State Rep. Jay Kaufman hosted Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan as part of his series "Open House" on Thursday evening. 

Kaufman and Ryan talked about the role of the district attorney's office, what efforts are underway to combat and prevent crime and answered questions from the audience. 

Ryan was appointed as District Attorney in April of this year after former District Attorney Gerald Leone resigned to work in a private law practice. Prior to her appointment, Ryan served as the office’s General Counsel, where she created the county-wide Workplace Safety and Violence Prevention Program, a release on teh talk by Kaufman states. Ryan is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 35,000 cases a year in the diverse 54 cities and towns of Middlesex County.

Here are five points discussed during the Open House chat. 

1) Prevention is key 

Ryan said that while her office does of course prosecute those who have committed crimes it also works to help prevent crimes from happening in the first place. 

She said the office has a number of crime preventions efforts underway, including ones for alcohol and drug abuse, bullying and cyber bullying and gangs. Her office also puts out information on scams, including those that target the elderly, and common crimes to keep the public informed. There are also programs to work with youth offenders to help get them on the right track and not to re-offend. 

"Our job is always better if a crime doesn't happen in the first place," Ryan said. 

2) Restorative Justice 

Ryan spoke about the office's Restorative Justice program, an effort to get the community involved in the justice process and to help keep first-time offenders out of jail but to also teach them about the impact of their crimes. 

The program works by having first-time offenders of crimes such as home break-ins, vandalism or other non-violent crimes and has them meet with their victim(s) and member of the community, if the victim agrees to the program. During the meeting the victim will explain the impact the crime had on them, both in the direct financial sense but also emotionally. Other members of the community are also invited to express how such crimes impact the neighborhood. 

Once the discussion is over the offender must agree to the punishment set by the group. Ryan said this could include paying restitution to the victims and some community service. 

Ryan said that listening to their victims explain how their crime affected them helps offenders put a face to what they may otherwise see as just another stranger. Also, because often times the offenders are part of that community, this may help them feel more apart of it when the process is over. 

"It's a way to change behavior," Ryan said. 

3) Domestic violence minimum sentencing. 

As the public saw in the case alleging that Jared Remy, the son of the Redsox broadcaster Jerry Remy, murdered his girlfriend Jennifer Martel two days after being arrested on a charge of assault of battery with a dangerous weapon. Remy allegedly pushed Martel into a mirror in that incident. 

Because Remy had been arrested for alleged domestic violence mere days before allegedly killing his girlfriend, Patch editor Rich Hosford asked Ryan if she would be in support of legislation mandating that repeat domestic violence offenders be held for a minimum of two days to give victims the physical and emotional distance to perhaps make a separation from the offender. 

Ryan said she believes each case should be taken separately and that mandatory sentencing takes the judgement out of the judiciary system. 

Kaufman said he could see both sides of the issue and agreed that giving the victim time to be away from the abuser could be beneficial. 

"That's a tough one," he said. "A cooling off period is a rich area for consideration. It's true the victim may not be the best self advocate at that point." 

4) Dookhan lab scandal 

Ryan was also asked about the impact of the Annie Dookhan lab scandal where Dookhan allegedly criminal lab test results while working at the at the now-closed William A. Hinton State Laboratory Institute. As a result officials across the state had to re-examine criminal convictions based on those results. 

Ryan said the scandal had an "enormous cost and impact" on the Middlesex District Attorney's office. She said there were 101 individual cases where the office had to either dismiss cases or drop certain charges because they could not make a case that the evidence was valid. 

5) Cyber bullying 

Ryan said that the biggest difficulty in combating bullying in this day and age is the presence of cyber bullying. In the past, she said, children who were picked on in school could at least go home at the end of the day and be separated from their tormenters. Now, she said, bullying can be 24/7. 

"Kids who are cyber bullied are so upset they go to bed clutching their phones," she said. 

The other issue with new technology and children is "sexting." In these cases a minor will often voluntarily send an inappropriate image of themselves to a boyfriend or girlfriend. What ends up happening is that the receiving party will either distribute it to other children or it will somehow end up getting posted somewhere and sent around. This can be great embarrassment for the child in the picture. 

"Imagine how hard it would be to go to school the next day knowing everyone saw that [image]," Ryan said. 


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