Hampden County District Attorney candidates, left-right, Shawn Allyn, Hal Etkin, Anthony Gulluni and Brett Vottero, respond to questions during a Candidates Forum hosted by The Westfield News and the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce at the Westfield Womans Club Wednesday night. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The four Democratic candidates vying for Hampden County District Attorney squared off at the Westfield Women’s Club last night during a candidates forum sponsored by The Westfield News Group and the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce.
With no candidates emerging on the Republican or Independent tickets, the winner of the September 9 Democratic primary will become the new Hampden County DA in January of 2015.
Attorneys Shawn Allyn of Agawam, Hal Etkin of Longmeadow, Anthony Gulluni of Springfield and Brett Vottero of Springfield took turns highlighting their past legal and life experiences.
Candidate for Hampden County District Attorney Brett Vottero responds to a question from Patrick Berry, background, moderator and President of The Westfield News Group, during a Candidates Forum sponsored by The Westfield News and The Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce at the Westfield Womans Club Wednesday night. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
They also each gave the over 70 voters who jammed the Women’s Club’s Court Street hall an inkling into what their vision for DA would look like should they be voted in to succeed now federal district judge Mark Mastroianni as the top law enforcement officer in Hampden County.
Moderated by Westfield News Group President Patrick Berry, questions were posed to the candidates on topics such as drug abuse, violent crime and gun control.
Allyn, who worked as a social worker before passing the Massachusetts bar, said that recent laws enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature are beneficial to victims of domestic violence.
“One of the most important jobs of the District Attorney’s office is to help a woman break the cycle (of abuse), to empower her and to hold the people who commit domestic violence accountable by swift and aggressive prosecution,” he said.
Allyn, 44, is viewed by many as the most progressive candidate running for the office and also listed reforming the district’s juvenile court system, making drug treatment more readily available and reducing the number of illegal guns on the streets as his key initiatives.
He also addressed his recent spat with Westfield District Court Judge Philip Contant, who threw Allyn off a motor vehicle homicide case and issued a scathing ruling in which he cited Allyn for a litany of potential ethics violations.
“Judge Contant and I clearly have a disagreement about my representation of the Carbone family and it’s taken it’s course. I respect Judge Contant and we have an appellate court for a reason,” he said. “Sometimes judges get it wrong and that’s one case in 1,500 criminal cases.”
Allyn also spoke of a recent editorial written by former Springfield Mayor and District Court Judge Mary Hurley, who said he was “disrespectful of the law.”
“When you’re going to run an editorial and attack a candidate running for district attorney, at least come clean and tell the public I had interest in running, but I couldn’t run because I had to work one day in July to get a $30,000 pay raise,” said Allyn of Hurley, adding that her sister had donated to the Gulluni campaign. “Mary Hurley has an interest in this race.”
Patrick Berry, right, moderator and owner of The Westfield News Group, questions Hampden County District Attorney candidates Shawn Allyn, Hal Etkin, Anthony Gulluni and Brett Vottero, foreground, during a Candidates Forum hosted by The Westfield News and the Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce at the Westfield Womans Club Wednesday night. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Etkin, 56, highlighted his experience, from overseeing police training and a child abuse unit, to his tenure as a trial lawyer and almost a decade in the District Attorney’s office.
“The Hampden County District Attorney’s office has a budget of $8.5 million and has 150 employees,” he said. “To make that office work, you have to have the experience of hiring, supervising, training and, in some cases, firing people.”
“The primary function of the District Attorney’s office is to protect the public from violent and repeat offenders,” Etkin added.
Etkin spoke at length about the need to make it “too hot in Hampden County” for violent criminals and gang members, referring to gun crime as a major crisis throughout the county. He also spoke of the need for treatment programs for opiate addicts and the key to releasing the county from the snare of heroin.
“We need to be working on deterrents and education, meeting with religious groups and in the school system. We need to eliminate the demand for drugs,” he said. “Nothing is worse than to meet a parent of child with a heroin addiction… the first step is education.”
Audience members listen to a question and answer session during the Hampden County District Attorney Candidates Forum sponsored by The Westfield News and The Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce at the Westfield Womans Club Wednesday night. The candidates included, Shawn Allyn, Hal Etkin, Anthony Gulluni and Brett Vottero. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
Gulluni, the youngest candidate running for the office, has spent the past six years working as an assistant district attorney under Mastroianni and his predecessor, William Bennett, who recently endorsed the 33-year old.
A resident of Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, Gulluni espoused his platform as one of “modern, adaptable crime prevention and prosecution” that is in touch with the issues ravaging Hampden County.
“This county is in the process of changing… My neighborhood is one of the places that has changed most dramatically,” he said. “But things like drug addiction are plaguing the city of Westfield and towns like Longmeadow and Agawam.”
“If we are going to succeed in the war not only against crime but against drugs, we have to focus our efforts early,” Gulluni said. “Impacting young people and people who are at the beginning of addiction, crime and destitution. Prevention has got to be a critical aspect of what the District Attorney’s office does.”
When asked of his relative inexperience outside his capacity as an Assistant District Attorney, Gulluni fired back, responding that his experience as a lawyer and youth diversion worker makes him more than qualified for the job.
“Look at my campaign, the endorsements I’ve gotten, look at the folks who know the system best who say Anthony Gulluni is the right person for the job,” he said before listing off an extensive cache of endorsements. “The question is flawed. The experience I have is out there, the cases I’ve tried is out there. The endorsements I have are people in the system.”
Vottero asked the undecided members of the audience what they’re seeking in the next Hampden County DA.
“The truth of the matter is that we agree on just about every issue. We’re all talking about the need to deal with violent and repeat offenders, the need to prevent crime and to deal with substance abuse and mental health as public health issues,” he said. “I want a DA with unquestioned ethical integrity, and I’ve never had a conviction overturned for misconduct.”
The 53-year old Vottero, who spent several decades as an assistant district attorney, provided case summaries of his most significant cases as evidence of the experience he believes makes him the right choice for Hampden County.
“I have urged every DA I’ve worked for to change their emphasis from street-level drug dealing to drug use,” he said. “I believe the problem in our community is people using drugs – they’re the ones claiming lives, putting children at risk and dying. I believe it’s a public health issue, not a criminal justice issue.”
Vottero added that the DA’s office has to focus resources on identifying users and getting them into treatment, referencing longtime tactics used in the war on drugs as “failures” and focusing on drug use as his major priority as DA.
“For years, the police will watch users make purchases and then arrest the dealer and the dealer goes to jail,” he said. “We’ve incarcerated more people in the last 30 years than most civilized countries in the world… do you feel safer?”
“You have to get beyond the words we’re going to utter and look at the evidence,” Vottero said. “The role of the District Attorney is critical. It’s the most powerful person in the criminal justice system.”
The forum was recorded and can be seen on Westfield Community Programming Channel 15 tomorrow at 4:00 & 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 11 a.m. and 5 & 10 p.m.; Sunday at 8 a.m. and 5 & 10 p.m.; and Monday at 3, 7 & 10 p.m.
