Tim Shugrue's elephant in the room!

August 8, 2022

Hello Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington,

What is the backstory of your challenger for D.A. named Tim Shugrue?  On Planet Valenti's blog, someone posted a link:

justicedenied.org/issue/issue_24/berkshire_county.htm

I read the article, and I found out that Tim Shugrue was part of the 1980s and 1990s legal establishment's alleged persecution of men who were allegedly falsely accused of child sexual abuse.  Meanwhile, the Good Old Boys, such as the late-Carmen Massimiano, Jr., Angelo Stracuzzi, and so on, protected each other.

The article states: "An overlapping cast of characters is involved in the prosecution of these cases, including Daniel Ford, the prosecutor for the Bernard Baran case, who went on to become the judge in the trial of the bus driver, Robert Halsey; Timothy Shugrue, the prosecuting attorney in the Halsey case, who moved to private practice and represented Bruce Clairmont's ex-wife in her divorce; Joseph Collias, a detective who specialized in child abuse investigations, who worked on the Baran and Clairmont cases; Gerard Downing, who was involved in the Baran case and was an assistant District Attorney during the Halsey trial; .... and Jane Satullo (now Satullo Shiya), a counselor, who interviewed children in both the Baran and Halsey cases. .... Shugrue and Collias were the founding president and vice-president of The Kids' Place, an agency that coordinates child abuse investigations in Berkshire County. Amy Moran, who counseled the Clairmont children, served on the Board of Directors. RoAnn Vecchia, who also interviewed the Clairmont children, is the forensic interviewer at Kids' Place today."

Then I clicked on the iBerkshires.com news article:

https://www.iberkshires.com/story/68015/DA-Candidate-Shugrue-Says-Time-to-End-Awful-Experiment-.html?source=most_read 

Tim Shugrue is pictured standing with Judge Dan Ford!  These child sex abuse criminal cases have been the biggest news stories in the Berkshire County's District Attorney's Office over the past 40 years.  There have been news stories, editorials, and op-ed about them in the Boston newspapers.  There was an op-ed in the Washington Post that asked, "Why Dan Ford was still a Massachusetts Judge"?

The biggest thing that bothers me about Tim Shugrue is that he always criticizes your brief time as the sitting Berkshire County D.A. without him writing about his successes and failures as an Attorney.  That right there shows me that he has no character.  Now it is clear to me that Tim Shugrue's failures are a lot bigger than anything he writes against you.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 9, 2022

Tim Shugrue's one-side attacks against the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington omits his own legal failures.  I posted a blog page about Tim Shugrue's elephant in the room that needs to be addressed by the news media and blogs prior to the September 6th, 2022, primary election.  Tim Shugrue was allegedly part of the 1980s - 1990s legal establishment of insider Berkshire County Attorneys who allegedly railroaded men who were allegedly falsely accused of child sex abuse crimes to allegedly further their own legal careers, while they allegedly covered up similar alleged crimes allegedly committed by Pittsfield's Good Old Boys including the late-Carmen Massimiano, Jr., Angelo Stracuzzi, and so on.  How on Earth are Tim Shugrue's legal failures not being covered by the news media and blogs?  I have no faith in Tim Shugrue for allegedly persecuting men in Berkshire County who were allegedly falsely accused of child sex abuse crimes!  I see Tim Shugrue as a man with NO character who allegedly destroyed the lives of allegedly innocent people in Berkshire County in order to further his own legal career.  Down with Tim Shugrue!

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 11, 2022

Tim Shugrue is getting a free pass on his controversial connections to Pittsfield's Good Old Boy network's legal establishment that persecuted Bernard Baran and other allegedly innocent men who were allegedly accused of child sex abuse crimes.  I do not comprehend why the news media and blogs are not investigating and reporting on Tim Shugrue's role in railroading allegedly innocent men so that he and his fellow Good Old Boy Berkshire County Attorneys could all advance their legal careers, such as his associates being elected as past District Attorneys and being appointed to past Judgeships.  I posted a blog page about Tim Shugrue's elephant in the room that no one out there is writing about, while most of the news media and blogs endlessly attack the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington for Pittsfield's violent crime infested inner city.  Please take the time to read my blog's comments about Tim Shugrue being a man with no character who relentlessly attacks Andrea Harrington, but he refuses to list his own failures as a career Berkshire County Attorney who allegedly destroyed the lives of allegedly innocent men in the Pittsfield area.

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 12, 2022

Hello Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington,

The Berkshire Eagle is using a double standard against you because Pittsfield's daily rag that is sarcastically called the Dirty Bird is not printing news and opinion articles about how your challenger, Tim Shugrue, is part of Pittsfield's Good Old Boy legal network of Attorneys who allegedly persecuted innocent men in child sex abuse criminal cases that destroyed the accused men's lives in order to advance the Berkshire County Attorneys' own legal careers in elected and court appointed offices over the past 40 years.

If I were in your shoes, I would be mad as all Hell about how Tim Shugrue is getting a free pass for his alleged failures as a Berkshire County Attorney, while you are being raked over the proverbial coals for your alleged failures as the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney.  No one out there has only successes without failures.  To illustrate, Babe Ruth had many more strikeouts than Home Runs in his legendary professional baseball career.

The news media and blogs need to tell the people and voters that Tim Shugrue is part of a long line of Berkshire County Attorneys who allegedly railroaded allegedly innocent men accused of child sex abuse crimes and destroyed the accused lives in order to be elected as past Berkshire County District Attorneys, along with the likes of Dan Ford, who is a retired Judge in Berkshire County.  I hate it when someone such as yourself is the subject of political attacks when the person challenging you gets away with his failures.

In my opinion, Tim Shugrue, Dan Ford, and the like associated Attorneys, have no character for what they allegedly did to climb the career ladder in the Berkshire County legal establishment.  I believe that they allegedly destroyed allegedly innocent men's lives to advance their legal careers in Berkshire County, which is wrong on so many levels.  This is what is happening to you, Andrea Harrington, right now.  Tim Shugrue, the news media and the blogs are all attacking you, which may advance Tim Shugrue's legal career if he ousts you and is elected as the next Berkshire County District Attorney on September 6th, 2022.

Tim Shugrue and his supporters don't care if they ruin your legal career so long as Tim Shugrue and his Good Old Boy legal network gain power.  It is disgusting, and I hope you will stop them all in their tracks before more allegedly innocent people get hurt in the future.  You are the people of Berkshire County's best hope for good governance as the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney.  You have my full support, and I hope you will win reelection next month.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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John Pucci: "I backed Andrea Harrington's first Berkshire district attorney campaign. Here's why she lost my support"

By John Pucci, Op-Ed, The Berkshire Eagle, August 12, 2022

Four years ago, I joined the effort to elect Andrea Harrington as Berkshire district attorney. My interest in doing so was rooted in dismay at the office’s prior administration.

I have watched closely the work of the DA’s Office under Harrington. Whatever one makes of the endorsements she is now announcing from politicians who live outside Berkshire County, her office’s performance on the nuts and bolts of its prosecutions has been woeful.

I have been a trial lawyer for 42 years. I spent 10 of those years as a federal prosecutor. In that period, I ran the U.S. Attorney’s office in Springfield. Among other cases I successfully prosecuted during those years was the biggest armed robbery case in the history of Berkshire County. I know what it is to be a quality prosecutor.

The failures of the DA’s Office under Andrea Harrington to effectively prosecute its major criminal cases have been frequent and noteworthy. Two of the most recent of those failures are telling.

Judge faults Berkshire DA's handling of case involving foster child's death and dismisses charges against Adams couple

In a ruling sharply critical of the Berkshire District Attorney's office, a judge this week dismissed an involuntary manslaughter case brought against Adams foster parents. "This is not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings," Judge John Agostini wrote.

In 2021, Harrington charged Cassandra Barlow-Tucker and Matthew Tucker, of Adams, with involuntary manslaughter alleging that they had, acting as foster parents, recklessly failed to provide basic medical care to a foster child in their care and so were criminally responsible for his death.

The Tuckers faced 20 years in prison if convicted, and suffered the devastating loss of reputation that attaches to those charged with killing a child.

Almost a year later, after conducting hearings and reviewing written submissions from Harrington’s office and the Tuckers’ attorneys, Berkshire Superior Court Judge John Agostini made detailed findings of prosecutorial misconduct by Harrington’s office and dismissed the case against the Tuckers. Judge Agostini is a highly esteemed Superior Court judge. In dismissing Harrington’s case, he wrote a thoughtful 17-page decision which concluded with the stinging comment that District Attorney Harrington’s presentation was “not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings.”

The Eagle wrote an editorial addressing the DA’s misconduct in this case and, in less circumspect terms, wrote that “Overreaching to obtain indictments is a dangerous abuse of discretion, but doing so in a case that tries to hold a foster parent criminally responsible for a child’s death is truly reprehensible.” Harrington has now appealed this ruling but has refused to respond to The Eagle’s request on behalf of the public for even the scant details of her appeal.

More recently, Harrington’s office lost a first-degree murder case where the evidence included the video confession of the defendant admitting to the murder. During the trial, the defendant testified that his confession was false and that he had given it only under pressure by police officers. But Harrington’s office chose not to call those police officers to testify and rebut that claim. After the trial, the police involved in that investigation publicly rebuked her office for not calling them as witnesses who could have thoroughly undermined the credibility of the defendant’s claim that his confession was coerced.

If Harrington did not believe the police who investigated the case and therefore would not call them to testify, she should either not have introduced the confession into evidence or not have prosecuted the case at all. If she believed the police, she should have called them as witnesses. At best, her office’s decision-making in this matter is inexplicable. At worst, it is prosecutorial malpractice.

These two cases exemplify the Harrington administration’s poor judgments in major prosecutions. It is fine for Harrington to lean on her progressive values and political endorsements to seek reelection. It is another thing to do the hard work of effectively and fairly prosecuting the real and dangerous criminals in Berkshire County, which is her office’s primary mission. That Harrington has failed to do.

Harrington’s public pronouncements criticizing others who serve in the criminal justice system also deserve some attention.

In May 2021, Harrington wrote a letter to Massachusetts District Court Chief Justice Paul Dawley, stating that District Judge Jennifer Tyne, who regularly presides over Harrington’s District Court cases, was a “significant threat to public safety.” Harrington described some of Judge Tyne’s rulings as “dangerous” and alleged that she engaged in “hostile treatment of victims and prosecutors.” She demanded that Judge Tyne be removed from the bench.

After carefully reviewing the tapes of the proceedings in question, Justice Dawley determined that there was “no factual basis” for Harrington’s allegations; rather, the recordings reflected Tyne’s “careful and thoughtful analysis,” and her rulings were “properly within the bounds of lawful judicial discretion.” Despite these findings and widespread support in the bar for Judge Tyne, including from many former prosecutors, Harrington has repeatedly and publicly stated that she “stands by” her criticisms.

DA Harrington backs indicted Baltimore prosecutor; likely challenger questions commitment to Berkshire County

And in January of this year, Harrington publicly proclaimed a strong but very dubious opinion involving the federal indictment of State’s Attorney for Baltimore Marilyn Mosby. Like Harrington, Mosby was part of a self-styled group of “progressive” chief prosecutors whose mission is to reform the criminal justice system. One day after Mosby’s federal indictment for perjury and other significant felonies, Harrington rose to her defense. Harrington wrote in a since-deleted tweet: “Seeing the justice system used against @MarilynMosbyEsq is scary for those of us taking on the status quo. I have tremendous respect for Marilyn’s leadership and her courage but she shouldn’t have to bear so much. This MLK day, I will be celebrating her.”

In essence, Harrington implied that the federal charges against Mosby were trumped up by the scary “status quo,” which apparently included the United States Department of Justice, which brought the charges, and the federal grand jury that indicted her.

Harrington’s unsubstantiated criticisms of others acting in good faith in the criminal justice system, like Judge Tyne and the U.S. Department of Justice, undermine the public’s trust in our criminal justice system to no good end.

All in all, the people of Berkshire County deserve better from their district attorney — a lot better.

John Pucci oversaw the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Springfield from 1990 to 1994. He is currently a trial lawyer in the law firm Bulkley Richardson, practicing throughout the four western counties of Massachusetts.

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August 14, 2022

I respect women, including Andrea Harrington. I support her professionally and politically only.  I don't want her sexually.  She is cute, but I support her for her progressive politics and equitable approach to law enforcement.  As for Tim Shugrue, he has been practicing law in Berkshire County for 36 years, which takes us back to at least 1986, not in 1994.  The Good Old Boys legal establishment Attorneys who support Tim Shugrue for Berkshire County D.A. in 2022 are the same people who persecuted allegedly innocent me who were accused of sex abuse crimes against children since the railroading of the now late-Bernard Baran and other accused men who lived in the Pittsfield area in the 1980s and 1990s.  The Boston Globe published a news story that explained that it was not until after Berkshire County D.A. Gerry Downing passed away that his successor Berkshire County D.A. David Capeless took several more years to release the audio tape recordings of the children's interviews that proved to be exculpatory evidence that led to Bernard Baran's release from state prison after over 2 decades of incarceration and legal appeals.  Dan Ford and Gerry Downing prosecuted Bernard Baran in the 1980s, but they (allegedly illegally) hid the audio tape recordings of the children for over 2 decades.  The Washington Post published an op-ed that asked "Why [was] Dan Ford still a Massachusetts Judge?"  Dan Ford is endorsing Tim Shugrue.  Please connect the dots!  Why is all of this not being investigated and covered by the news media and blogs?

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 14, 2022

You may write in Boss Hogg for Sheriff.  I am rooting for the A-Team: Alf & Andrea.  Whether it is Boss Hogg, Alf & Andrea, or Tom & Tim, these two elected positions pay a whole lot of money and benefits that most people could only dream of receiving from the public trough.  When Dan Bosley ran for Sheriff in 2010, people sarcastically wrote that he was like Boss Hogg trying to double his state pension.  Dan Bosley still cashed in with his public pension(s) plus perks on top of his 6-figure lobbyist salary on Beacon Hill and beyond.  Boss Hogg, Dan Bosley, and the four candidates for running for the two Berkshire County plum positions all like to roll in the taxpayers' dough!  Meanwhile, "Rome is still burning" in Pittsfield, but let's blame Linda for it all because we need a scapegoat to make ourselves feel better.

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 15, 2022

Re: What did Dan Valenti expect Andrea Harrington's response would be?

For a long time now, blogger Dan Valenti has unmercifully attacked Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington with negative opinions and negative accusations that are downright horrible.  I have written to blogger Dan Valenti over and over again to ask him to please use facts, which even I agree with, in his coverage and opinions about the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney, Andrea Harrington, but he rarely does so.  What did Dan Valenti expect Andrea Harrington's response would be when she declined to appear at his debate forum?  Any reasonable person would tell blogger Dan Valenti to pound sand after he relentlessly and unfavorably blogged about them over and over again.

To be clear, I support Andrea Harrington's reelection campaign in 2022.  I do not agree with all of her actions and decisions.  To illustrate, how on Earth could she agree with the Pittsfield Police Department's CYA Use of Force report that defended in the Police Officer's shooting to death Miguel Estrella?  The PPD stated that this young man with a long history of mental illness was not a person in distress under the law at the time of the use of deadly force.  That is like saying 2 + 2 = 5!  Prior to his death at the hands of the PPD, he was self-harming himself with a knife, he was abusing substances, he was having mental health crises episodes, the police were previously called but took no action at that time, but they came back when things became worse, and then they shot him to death because he was moving towards them with a knife.  D.A. Andrea Harrington's report sided with the Pittsfield Police Department's use of deadly force, but the law is clearly supposed to protect a person in distress, which Miguel Estrella clearly was on the night of his death.

We live in a Free Country.  Andrea Harrington has every right to practice her progressive politics.  If her political activities interfered with her professional law enforcement duties, then she would be wrong and she should face repercussions.  I do not believe that her progressive political activities have interfered with her official duties.  I believe every law enforcement official, including Andrea Harrington, should treat those under their legal authority in a fair and safe manner.  At times, Andrea Harrington has let her emotions stand in her way of being professional, but she is also human.  Andrea Harrington's human side also has shown her to care about the people of and communities in Berkshire County.  She has guided people into mental health services and rehabilitation programs instead of throwing the proverbial book at them for minor crimes.  I believe Andrea Harrington is a good person.

Jonathan A. Melle

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"Berkshire NAACP sets a new forum date for district attorney candidates"

By Meg Britton-Mehlisch, The Berkshire Eagle, August 15, 2022

Pittsfield — The Berkshire County branch of the NAACP said Monday it will co-host two virtual debates with candidates for the Berkshire County sheriff and Berkshire district attorney in the final weeks of both campaigns.

The announcement appears to resolve a dispute over forum appearances by the district attorney candidates.

The debates, scheduled for Aug. 29 [2022] from 6-9 p.m. over Zoom, will be moderated by Dr. Leticia Haynes, vice president for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Williams College. The Central Berkshire County and Williamstown League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts are co-hosts.

The event will take place two days after the start of early voting, which runs from Aug. 27 to Sept. 2 [2022].

Both district attorney candidates were invited in mid-July to a virtual debate hosted by the NAACP on Aug. 17 [2022] — this Wednesday.

The Shugrue campaign responded three days after the invitation letting the NAACP know he had a scheduling conflict. The candidate had committed to sitting down with local blogger Dan Valenti for a DA debate for his platform, Planet Valenti.

In emails between the campaign and NAACP, the Shugrue team attempted to reschedule the debate, but was told that the organization’s executive board voted in late July to keep the debate on Wednesday, deciding “that if only one candidate shows, then that candidate will simply debate an empty chair.”

The Harrington campaign, which had previously been chastised by the Shugrue camp for “ducking debates,” issued a statement last week criticizing the Shugrue campaign’s choice in events.

"The NAACP is the preeminent racial, social, and civil rights organization in Berkshire County. I'm looking forward to discussing my record of reform as Berkshire District Attorney and encourage my opponent to not skip this debate — the issues at hand are too important,” Harrington said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Harrington’s campaign later called Planet Valenti “an inflammatory, extremist, right-wing blog known for promoting race-baiting and misogynistic content.”

Valenti, asked for a response, called that description of his website "laughable."

"It’s the D.A.’s characterization of Planet Valenti that is 'inflammatory and extremist,'" Valenti said by email, when asked for his response. "This is just Andrea’s excuse for ducking out of yet another debate. She’s scared to appear in a live, in-person, forum that will require wits and the ability to think on her feet to handle the tough questions that citizens and voters have been asking."

"As for Planet Valenti, the only thing we promote is fair and accurate coverage, both news and opinion. We are the opposite of what the DA’s campaign says we are," he said. "My readers know it. We have a right wing and a left wing. That’s why we’re flying."

The Harrington spokesperson said the campaign believes it is irresponsible for any candidate to appear on Valenti's forum "to validate this sort of behavior, especially those seeking to be District Attorney .... It is deeply troubling that Tim Shugrue has chosen to embrace Dan Valenti ... over participation in a debate hosted by the NAACP on the same night."

The Shugrue campaign, in turn, said this: “Ms. Harrington's campaign is being disingenuous by saying Tim declined, where we are working with these organizations to find alternative dates.”

The campaign said it was NAACP organizers who declined to find a workaround on timing and that the campaign is attempting to juggle Shugrue’s court schedule as a defense attorney with his public appearances.

The situation shifted Monday with the NAACP announcement. Branch President Dennis Powell called on both candidates to “make the commitment to show up” for voters.

"Holding debates by nonpartisan organizations like the NAACP Berkshire County Branch, League of Women Voters, and American Civil Liberties Union, Massachusetts (ACLUM) allows voters to be able to hear the differences in candidates' opinions and approaches to things that affect our community,” Powell said in a statement.

“The hosts have rescheduled this debate to work around the candidates' schedules so we're asking them all to make the commitment to show up and allow voters to have the most information before they cast their vote.”

Harrington’s campaign said that it will not be participating in the Valenti event, which is still scheduled to be filmed Wednesday and posted on Valenti’s blog and social media accounts.

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"In first Berkshire DA debate, Harrington and Shugrue put their records head-to-head"

The Berkshire Eagle, August 15, 2022

Pittsfield — In the first debate of the Democratic primary race for Berkshire District Attorney, local defense attorney Timothy Shugrue told voters to look to his 36 years of courtroom experience to find an attorney with a deep understanding of both sides of the law, strong relationships with law enforcement and an ethos focused on “competence, confidence and compassion.”

Incumbent Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington conceded that her challenger has “more experience in the courtroom than I do," but said her election to the office nearly four years ago was a message from a community looking for a systemic reimagining of the county’s justice system. She called on voters not to “lose faith in the progress we are making.”

The hourlong debate was the candidates’ first opportunity to appear together in-person before voters, as well as pose direct challenges and questions to their opponent.

Harrington, speaking in support of the racial justice movement produced in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, pushed Shugrue to state his “position on systemic racism within the criminal justice system.”

She further challenged Shugrue to state his opinion on the Massachusetts Police Reform Bill, signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker in late 2020.

“We will not tolerate that type of action in our community,” Shugrue said of the Minneapolis police officers who murdered Floyd. “We will make sure our police officers are trained and educated, so these things don't happen.”

Shugrue said he wouldn’t comment on the police reform bill during the debate “because there's so many components to that, that I want to address and I'll address that in the proper time.”

When given the opportunity to question Harrington, Shugrue asked the incumbent to tell voters the three most significant jury trials she’d handled.

“Attorney Shugrue, everyone knows that you have 36 years of experience, everyone knows you have more experience in the courtroom than I do. That’s not something that needs to be debated,” Harrington said. “What I am is a leader in the office … and being a leader in the office doesn’t mean spending all your time doing trials.”

Harrington said her record shows that she has increased the office’s budget, the diversity of its staff and created new units, like the special victims unit and high-risk domestic violence team, to focus on people victimized by crime.

The debate showed off fundamental differences in the utility each attorney sees in the court system. A series of questions focused on the way each candidate would choose to treat crimes involving substance use, people experiencing mental health crises, and illegal gun possession and violence.

Time and again, Harrington reiterated her belief that the best response to some offenses comes outside of the courtroom in a partnership between community organizations and the DA’s office.

Harrington has attempted to end the use of cash bail, calling it a “racist practice” that criminalizes poverty. Under her leadership, the office has increased its use of dangerousness hearings — a practice in which the DA’s office petitions the court to hold a defendant without bail before trial on the basis they present a specific risk to the community.

Shugrue said he'd had clients subjected to the policy in Berkshire County and criticized it as a way to "punish people for crimes they haven't been convicted of."

Shugrue said he believes deeply that pretrial probation programs can provide vital supports and accountability to struggling defendants. He said he wants to build out the programs offered within the courts, proposing the county consider implementing a mental health court similar to the one put in place in Springfield.

“Make no mistake about it, tough, effective prosecution can coexist with criminal justice reform,” Shugrue said. “They go hand in hand.”

Shugrue’s “tough” approach to prosecution has been called by some Harrington supporters as a signal that the defense attorney would implement a kind of “broken windows" policing if elected to the office.

The broken windows theory, popularized in 1990s New York under former mayor Rudy Giuliani, suggests that visible signs of crime creates an environment ripe for further crime. Proponents suggest that tough policing of minor crimes as a kind of preventative.

The policy has been widely criticized for giving law enforcement free rein to continue racist practices and policing.

Harrington took up the call of her supporters putting to voters directly that Shugrue was “pushing for broken windows policing.”

“Not once have I myself or anybody in my campaign ever endorsed the broken windows policy,” Shugrue said, calling the claim misinformation from the Harrington campaign. “It doesn't exist, we don't believe in it. There's been racial inequality in that policy and we have never once said that we support broken windows policies.”

Harrington said she has “the tape” showing otherwise. Shugrue said “I’d like to see that tape.”

Despite an impassioned back-and-forth call and response from the candidates, the evening ended cordially with handshakes and smiles between both attorneys. Voters will decide which candidate will lead the office in the next four-year term during the primary vote on Sept. 6.

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August 17, 2022

Tim Shugrue and Tom Bowler are two old hacks that would continue predictable Pittsfield politics' Business as usual failed leadership that put the city into the proverbial ditch a long time ago.  I believe that Godfather Jimmy Ruberto (D-Naples, Florida) along with his "WHEN" ladies Linda Tyer (D-Gated Community) and Tricia Farley Bouvier (D-Country Buffet) not endorsing Andrea Harrington's reelection campaign for a second term as the Berkshire County District Attorney supports my argument that the A-Team: Alf & Andrea - will discontinue the city's failed leadership that has plagued City Hall over many decades.  It is time for change, not more of the same failed leadership that (Sarcasm) transformed downtown Pittsfield into an art and cultural mecca that rivals Paris, London, NYC & L.A., which hosted public art exhibits of "Pittsfield: A City in Decay"!  Jimmy Ruberto's endorsement - or lack thereof - is about as worthless as his Rolodex.  Andrea Harrington should be proud that she is NOT one of Jimmy Ruberto's "WHEN" ladies.  She is her own person.

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "As a former judge, I can vouch for Shugrue's strength as a DA candidate"

The Berkshire Eagle, August 19, 2022

To the editor: I was privileged to serve as a judge of the Massachusetts Superior Court for more than 30 years, and during that time I became acquainted with Attorney Timothy J. Shugrue.

Mr. Shugrue tried several cases in my courtroom both as a prosecutor and a defense attorney. I observed that he was always extremely well prepared and that he was well acquainted with both the substantive law and the rules of procedure. He was an aggressive but fair prosecutor, and always displayed a proper regard for the rights of the accused. As a defense attorney, he was a zealous advocate for his clients but never crossed the line into “sharp” practice. In fact, I cannot remember a single occasion when he was accused of improper conduct, and I always regarded his ethics as being above reproach. He is an excellent trial lawyer with sound judgment, and if he is elected to be our next district attorney he will able to hit the ground running on Day One.

After I retired, I came to know Tim on a more personal level. I found that he is a very kind person who believes in giving back to his community. He has built a lucrative law practice and could live the rest of his life in comfort if he chose to do so. However, he has decided to walk away from his practice and a life of relative ease in order to answer the call to public service. He has been told by many people who encouraged him to run that Berkshire County needs him, and I agree. I also discovered that Tim is a lifelong proud Democratic with progressive instincts, and in fact belonged to a labor union during his early years when he worked his way through law school and is now a big supporter of organized labor. I have no doubt that he will bring those values to the district attorney’s office.

I am convinced that Tim Shugrue has the experience, talents and work ethic to be an exceptional district attorney. I can vouch for his legal ability and his integrity, as well as for his passion for justice. I respectfully ask my fellow citizens to join me in voting for Timothy J. Shugrue in the Sept. 6 Democratic Primary.

Daniel A. Ford, Pittsfield

The writer is a retired justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

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August 21, 2022

A Parody of blogger Dan Valenti's writings praising Tim Shugrue and disparaging Andrea Harrington

Tim Shugrue is perfect.  He has practiced the law in Berkshire County for the past 36 years.  He never had any failures as an Attorney in all of those years.  I praise Tim Shugrue all of the time.  I never write about Tim Shugrue's dirty laundry with the past Berkshire County District Attorney's Office under the late Tony Ruberto (Jimmy's deceased brother who became a Judge), the late Gerry Downing (Did Ben Downing's father really die of a heart attack or did Gerry Downing move far away to a place such as South America prior to the D.A.'s Office releasing of the long hidden but the later released audio tape recordings of the young children in the Bernard Baran case?), David Capeless (who retired a while after he released the aforementioned hidden exculpatory evidence), Judge Dan Ford (who prosecuted/railroaded Bernard Baran with Gerry Downing at his side), along with the other notorious Good Old Boys who covered up the late Carmen Massimiano, Jr. and Angelo Stracuzzi and possibly other homosexual deviant Pittsfield men who allegedly sexually abused underage boys, while other Pittsfield area men were persecuted for similar criminal offenses by the past Berkshire County District Attorneys for decades.

Andrea Harrington is imperfect.  She has little experience practicing the law in Berkshire County.  During her 3 years, 7 months, and 21 days as the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney, violent crime in Pittsfield and other areas of the Berkshires increased, but I don't wish to point out that over 1,000 gang members now live in inner-city Pittsfield.  I don't wish to point out that Mayor Linda Tyer has been in charge of public safety matters, including the Pittsfield Police Department, in Pittsfield 3 years longer than her current counterpart in the D.A.'s Office.  It is all Andrea Harrington's fault because she uses her progressive policies that helps people in need of mental healthcare, social services, charitable organizations, community support programs, and the like.  Andrea Harrington cares about the disadvantaged people instead of just throwing the proverbial book at them to punish them for their personal struggles.

I want voters to oust Andrea Harrington so that Tim Shugrue can go back to protecting deviant men such as the late Carmen Massimiano and Angelo Stracuzzi, while persecuting and railroad men such as the late Bernard Baran and the other men who were allegedly falsely accused of child sex abuse crimes under the past Berkshire County District Attorneys.  I close by writing that Tim Shugrue is perfect in every way, while Andrea Harrington is an incompetent buffoon.

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 23, 2022

There are so many corrupt career politicians out there from Pittsfield politics to BeaCON Hill to the Swamp and beyond, but the smallest fish named Andrea Harrington is the scapegoat for decades of failed leadership that put Pittsfield into the proverbial ditch; it is almost like the corrupt vested interests tanked Pittsfield's distressed economy for their own selfish financial gains.  Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington has only been in elected office for 3 years, 7 months, and 23 days.  Pittsfield has been in the top 10 cities in Massachusetts for violent crime, according to the FBI's annual reports, for a long time prior to 2019.  Over 1,000 gang members now live in inner-city Pittsfield.  Mayor Linda Tyer called the daily shootings in inner-city Pittsfield "an immediate crisis".  North Street is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley" and the impoverished neighborhoods that surround dangerous downtown Pittsfield are sarcastically called "The Ring of Poverty".  North Adams is the poorest city in Massachusetts.  Mayor Linda Tyer parks her Lexus luxury car in her garage where she lives in a mansion in an elitist Gated Community far away from inner-city Pittsfield.  Her political boss Jimmy Ruberto lives full-time in Naples, Florida and part-time in Lenox; he never purchased a home nor rented an apartment in Pittsfield.  The Ruling Elites in Pittsfield are totally disconnected from the common and disadvantaged residents who live and have to pay excessively high taxes in Pittsfield in return for Level 5 public schools, unsafe streets, severe economic inequality, political corruption, and so on.  The last person I would blame for Pittsfield's plight is Andrea Harrington!

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 26, 2022

What is more predictable: (a) Predictable Pittsfield politics always raising municipal taxes (by 5% every fiscal year going back nearly 40 years ago) for its Level 5 public schools and substandard public services, or (b) Blogger Dan Valenti always scapegoating Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington for violent crime after many decades of failed state and local leadership that put Pittsfield into the proverbial ditch?

According to Tim Shugrue, he never had any failures in his 36 years of practicing law in Berkshire County, while his opponent had a lot of them in less than only 4 years in elected office.  How many Pittsfield politicians have promised to fight violent crime without success?  Tim Shugrue is the 1,000th politician to make that false promise!

Lastly, the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) endorsed Tom Bowler for his campaign for his third 6-year term as Berkshire County Sheriff, while criticizing Alf Barbalunga for raising some of the problematic issues there.  The irony is that the Dirty Bird's endorsements usually help the other non-endorsed candidates because the Berkshire Eagle is no longer a respectable newspaper, but rather, it is mostly used a liner in a dirty bird cage.

Jonathan A. Melle

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Our Opinion: "The Eagle editorial board endorses Timothy Shugrue for Berkshire district attorney"

Editorial, The Berkshire Eagle, August 26, 2022

When Berkshire voters go to the polls to decide who should run the District Attorney’s Office, they’ll have a stark choice: an incumbent who has spent four years viewing herself as the county’s minister of justice as opposed to being a careful and competent chief prosecutor vs. a seasoned challenger with considerably more trial experience and a clearer understanding that the county’s top law enforcement official has responsibilities to every segment of our community. The latter is the obvious choice to bring some effective leadership to a DA’s Office that we and others have consistently noted is sorely lacking it. For that reason, The Eagle editorial board is endorsing attorney Timothy Shugrue for Berkshire district attorney.

Mr. Shugrue’s legal resume is lengthy, featuring familiarity with both sides of the courtroom — prosecution and defense. What’s more, his multifaceted background in prosecutors’ offices, private practice and co-founding the nonprofit Berkshire County Kids’ Place gives him a wide regional network of leaders in law and advocacy. Mr. Shugrue has received some weighty endorsements from people who understand the workings of the District Attorney’s office (some of which have appeared on these pages in the form of letters and op-eds), while District Attorney Andrea Harrington has boasted of being endorsed by high-profile but far-flung figures who show little or no direct knowledge of the issues emanating from the Berkshire DA’s office. More importantly, Mr. Shugrue’s extensive experience equips him for the task of building and maintaining an effective Berkshire DA’s Office capable of consistently accomplishing its crucial mission of seeking out justice on behalf of the people of Berkshire County.

A similar task fell to District Attorney Harrington when she assumed her office, because she chose to clean house of many dedicated staffers who worked for her predecessor and were deemed insufficiently loyal to the new leader. She has failed to meet this task, and we are not alone in being troubled by the resultant high staff turnover and reliance on outside prosecutors in key cases. Unfortunately, her ill-advised choice set a trend of sloppy mistakes and poor discretion.

This critique is not just ours. Consider the accounts of the DA’s job performance and leadership style from those who were once prominent supporters.

“Her office’s performance on the nuts and bolts of its prosecutions has been woeful,” wrote former federal prosecutor John Pucci, who donated to and backed District Attorney Harrington’s 2018 campaign.

“The office runs like a campaign. It is a culture of making sure that Andrea gets reelected in 2022,” said Helen Moon, who managed the 2018 campaign and then served as director of special projects in the DA’s Office until her abrupt departure in 2020.

“Leadership meetings focused as much on enemies and the press as on the difficult challenges the office faced in accomplishing its mission. … Harrington simply does not have the necessary skills and experience for the job and she has demonstrated little, if any, interest in acquiring them,” wrote Jeanne Kempthorne, whom District Attorney Harrington hired as her chief of appeals and public records officer. Sadly, Ms. Kempthorne felt obligated to resign in early 2020 when the DA blocked the release of public records in a politically fraught case. That courageous resignation earned Ms. Kempthorne the New England First Amendment Coalition’s Orfield Citizenship Award.

These accounts from within the DA’s Office are telling, but similar signs of questionable priorities and prosecutorial dysfunction have been all too readily visible from the outside, as well. Legal organizations across the state rightly ripped District Attorney Harrington’s egregiously misguided attempt last year to oust a District Court judge over rulings she didn’t like. Earlier this year, a Superior Court judge dismissed the indictment of an Adams foster couple on negligent manslaughter charges in the death of an infant in their care, issuing a rare rebuke of the DA’s handling of the case as “not the standard of conduct the court expects from the Commonwealth in grand jury proceedings.”

District Attorney Harrington dismisses substantive criticism out of hand as simply slings and arrows aimed at a reform agent. Claiming the title of reformer to deflect real concerns about the performance of an office with a monopoly on prosecuting public justice gives a bad name to the important work of implementing sensible criminal justice reform. Worse, it undermines reform by associating it with the sloppy and unethical behavior.

Yet ignoring all the evidence cited above, District Attorney Harrington told The Eagle editorial board that “based on any metric, my office has excelled.” Curiously, though, the district attorney declined to answer questions about individual cases that her office has prosecuted, including ones that are concluded. If the DA’s Office is excelling at its primary duty, why refuse to talk about it in detail on the record? And what does that say about the DA’s pronounced commitment to transparency?

Mr. Shugrue, for his part, seems to recognize the need for more transparency and, above all, competence from the county’s top prosecutor. He said he would resume public releases detailing all Superior Court rulings — a regular practice during previous administrations that District Attorney Harrington ceased. If elected, we’ll hold him to that. Beyond such relatively simple measures to upgrade the office’s transparency and competency, Mr. Shugrue also recognizes the nitty-gritty work and complex realities behind the news conferences and press releases that a quality DA’s Office must confront. That means actually using the great discretion granted to district attorneys to actively balance justice and compassion, not just dismiss certain low-level offenses to match a sloganeering blanket policy. And it means putting together, training and leading a roster of assistant DAs, victim advocates and other staff that can inspire the sort of trust in the county’s top law enforcement office that has been eroded among some in the Berkshire community.

Mr. Shugrue is ready, willing and qualified for that job. He is considerably more qualified and experienced in the courtroom than the incumbent DA was when she first ran or, for that matter, than she is now after one term. Courtroom experience is essential to the task of evaluating cases and training younger assistants, and Mr. Shugrue promises to build the “best law office in Berkshire County” to serve the entire community.

Given District Attorney Harrington’s widely recognized poor performance, we enthusiastically support Timothy Shugrue for Berkshire district attorney.

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"Shugrue has the wrong experience for District Attorney" - Stick with a proven leader.

By Michael Mah, Letter to the Editor, The Berkshire Edge, August 25, 2022

To the editor:

In the race for the Berkshire County District Attorney, Timothy Shugrue talks about experience but his seems about quantity, with little quality. Most of his career was in divorce court, not prosecuting criminals.

As Assistant District Attorney back in the 80s and 90s, he was never promoted. He has not prosecuted a case since the Clinton Administration or before email. That sounds like inexperience to me.

Quality prosecutors from the old Ruberto/Downing days became judges or partners at prestigious law firms. But not Tim. His career fanned the flames of divorcing couples burning their marriages down over possessions, more akin to an ambulance chaser, not a prosecutor.

He is not certified to accept criminal cases from the Committee for Public Counsel Services. His criminal work has mostly been pleading out drunk drivers. He criticizes District Attorney Andrea Harrington’s use of dangerousness hearings, but he has never done one.

Andrea Harrington has proudly led the District Attorney Office for four years. She has courageously transformed it into a progressive, modern prosecutor’s office; pioneered a high risk domestic violence task force; and countered the rise of alt-right hate.

Harrington created the first ever Hate Crime Section in the District Attorney’s office. She is endorsed by renowned Constitutional Scholars, fellow District Attorneys, Attorneys General, a Supreme Judicial Court Justice, and other public servants who have earned our trust.

Stick with a proven leader.

Michael Mah

Pittsfield

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August 26, 2022

The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) endorsed Tim Shugrue for Berkshire County District Attorney to oust the sitting Berkshire County D.A. Andrea Harrington, who the Editors heavily criticized as an inexperienced prosecutor with an alleged less than 4-year record of poor performance.

Tim Shugrue has been an Attorney in Berkshire County for the past 36 years.  According to the Twilight Zone-like news media and his campaign propaganda, Tim Shugrue never had any failures over the past 36 years, while Andrea Harrington had many failures in less than 4 years.  If one thinks that is difficult to believe, then he or she would be right.

I read a letter to the editor of the Berkshire Edge that points out that Tim Shugrue's record is one of representing clients in divorce cases and chasing ambulances all for the Almighty Dollar.  Tim Shugrue is not certified to accept criminal cases from the Committee for Public Counsel Services.  Tim Shugrue never served as counsel in a dangerousness hearing.  His long ago record as a prosecutor never saw him promoted to a higher position, but now Tim Shugrue is campaigning for a second time in 18 years for the top job.

I posted a blog page about Tim Shugrue's elephant in the room.  The past Berkshire County District Attorneys from Tony Ruberto (Jimmy Ruberto's deceased brother), to Gerry Downing (Ben Downing's deceased father), and David Capeless were all ensnared in the Bernard Baran case whereby exculpatory evidence - long hidden tape recordings of young children - were allegedly illegally withheld from the alleged child sex abuse criminal trial and appeals for over two decades.  Tim Shugrue was part of this legal nightmare, but no one other than me is writing about his role in allegedly persecuting and railroading allegedly innocent men in the Pittsfield area who were allegedly falsely accused of child sex abuse crimes.  The point I made is that all of these establishment men, including retired Judge Dan Ford, along with Tim Shugrue, took these nightmarish legal actions to further their own career while ruining the lives of allegedly innocent men.

It is disgusting to watch them do this to Andrea Harrington as we speak and write about the 2022 primary election for Berkshire County District Attorney.  The Dirty Bird, blogger Dan Valenti, and the corrupt Berkshire County legal establishment are all misguided, and they should be called out for their horrible history that allowed powerful men such as alleged child sex abusers Carmen Massimiano, Jr. and Angelo Stracuzzi, among others, whom they protected for their own professional gains.  The Dirty Bird should write editorials that say this is not how the law in Berkshire County and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be used, but rather, they point out the problems in less than 4 years that Andrea Harrington experienced as the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney.

My view of Andrea Harrington is that she is the smallest of the many problems in government in Berkshire County and beyond.  I also see Andrea Harrington as the people of Berkshire County's best hope for reform, democracy and good governance going forward in time.  When her critics use facts, I agree with the facts about her public record, but when they unfairly attack her, I choose to defend her public record as the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney.  I support her progressive policies, her compassion for the people and community, and her good treatment of the people she serves in elected office.

Jonathan A. Melle

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August 28, 2022

Sarcasm: Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington hates white men.  The police and other public safety personnel and their public labor unions all hate Andrea Harrington.  Despite decades of systemic violent crime in Berkshire County, D.A. Andrea Harrington's disregard for law enforcement caused these problems to go from very bad to even worse.  When Tim Shugrue is elected to the plum political post that he has sought after for 18 years on September 6th, 2022, the corrupt legal establishment will be back in charge again.  White men, the police and other public safety personnel and their public labor unions, and the unsafe streets will all return to the way things were prior to 2019.

NOT Sarcasm: Never mind that allegedly falsely accused white men in Berkshire County back in the 1980s and 1990s were charged and convicted - allegedly persecuted and railroaded - of child sex crimes, which Tim Shugrue allegedly had a role in when he worked as a prosecutor for the late D.A.s Tony Ruberto (Jimmy's deceased brother) and Gerry Downing (Ben's deceased father).  Meanwhile, powerful white men such as the late career Sheriff Carmen Massimiano, Jr. and Pittsfield politician Angelo Stracuzzi, and others, alleged child sex abuse crimes were allegedly covered up and/or mismanaged by the past Berkshire County District Attorneys and corrupt court system.

Could it be that D.A. Andrea Harrington is trying to right the ship after decades of mismanagement and questionable prosecutions of criminal cases?

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "DA candidate Shugrue's proved wrong on 'broken windows' remark"

The Berkshire Eagle, August 27, 2022

To the editor: One reason that people have lost faith in the political process is the perception that politicians lie.

We saw this on display at the Berkshire district attorney debate. ("In first Berkshire DA debate, Harrington and Shugrue put their records head-to-head," Eagle, Aug. 15.) District Attorney Andrea Harrington called out Tim Shugrue for his support of “broken windows" policing, a failed policy championed by then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani that criminalized people suffering from addiction, mental health challenges and people of color.

Candidate Shugrue vehemently denied this, but was later caught in a lie when an interview of him championing “broken windows” surfaced. Lying is not a good look for someone running to be chief prosecutor for Berkshire County. Frankly, it’s scary and disgusting to tell two groups of people two different things in order to win political points. Mr. Shugrue should be ashamed of himself for doing this. I'm sick of the dishonesty, and for me, it is a guarantee that I’ll be voting for Harrington.

Tisha Rose, Pittsfield

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August 29, 2022

I had brunch with my dad, Bob, this Monday late-morning.  I asked my dad how Tim Shugrue's 36-year legal career in Berkshire County of mostly representing clients in divorce cases and being a notorious ambulance chaser for the Almighty Dollar qualifies him to be elected Berkshire County District Attorney?  My dad (a former Berkshire County Commissioner from 1997 - mid-2000) answered me that it doesn't, but anyone out there can run for any elected office despite not being qualified for the public post.

In the news article, Tim Shugrue says that we are not Boston, we are Berkshire County.  Like the sitting Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington, Tim Shugrue believes in diversion.  But Tim Shugrue believes that D.A. Andrea Harrington's progressive policies are deferring societal problems instead of solving them.  Unlike her challenger, D.A. Andrea Harrington looks for alternatives for troubled people who are in need of mental healthcare, public assistance, and addiction treatment before charging them for minor criminal offenses based on their personal problems.

Massachusetts district attorney races and the progressive prosecutor | WBUR News

Jonathan A. Melle

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Berkshire district attorney

DEATH PENALTY: Andrea Harrington said this week that her challenger should disavow what the campaign termed “his long standing support for the death penalty in Massachusetts.” The campaign said Timothy Shugrue once supported reimposing the death penalty in the state. It cited a media interview in which Shugrue said the threat of the death penalty “potentially gives you more of an ability to get a plea from the defendant.”

Harrington opposes the death penalty and calls it “immoral, demonstrably racist and fraught with potential for wrongful convictions.”

HARRINGTON ENDORSEMENTS: Harrington’s campaign announced endorsements from the following local officials and community leaders: Joe Nowak, Adams Select Board; Jamie Minacci, Stockbridge Select Board; Stephen Bannon, Great Barrington Select Board; Brian Tobin, Mount Washington Select Board; Jeff Johnson, Williamstown Select Board; and community activist Shirley Edgerton of Pittsfield.

Harrington was also endorsed by MassNow, the state chapter of the National Organization for Woman, and by VoteMama PAC, which supports women in office who advance issues that benefit mothers and families.

Editor’s note: The Berkshire Eagle will bring readers updates on candidates and campaigns ahead of the Sept. 6 [2022] primary elections. This recap is drawn from submissions from the candidates.

Source: "Thomas Bowler adds endorsements; 'Alf' Barbalunga questions Bowler handling of workplace bias complaints", The Berkshire Eagle, September 2, 2022

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Tuesday’s Democratic primary will settle hard-fought races after months of campaigning in Berkshire County | WAMC

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September 7, 2022

I posted the following link on my blog page: Tim Shugrue's Elephant in the room

Following dominant victory over Harrington in Berkshire DA race, Shugrue thanks controversial legal mentor | WAMC

Following dominant victory over Harrington in Berkshire DA race, Shugrue thanks controversial legal mentor | WAMC

WAMC's Josh Landes is the only journalist/blogger who wrote about retired Judge Dan Ford's legal record in Berkshire County that I have been writing and blogging about for one month now.  Tim Shugrue's remarks saying thank you to Dan Ford is SCANDALOUS!

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "Thank you for your service, DA Harrington"

The Berkshire Eagle, September 13, 2022

To the editor: Firstly, I would like to congratulate Timothy Shugrue on winning the election for Berkshire district attorney.

I genuinely look forward to hearing more about his goals and initiatives as he transitions into this very important role. While it’s no secret I have been an outspoken supporter of current District Attorney Andrea Harrington, hoping for her successor’s success is crucial for the sake of our community. Democratic societies are built around the principle of free and fair elections, and such was the case in this election. Mr. Shugrue won fair and square.

I would be amiss if I did not take the time to congratulate and express gratitude to Ms. Harrington for her accomplishments over the last four years. She came into the 2018 district attorney race like a wrecking ball — unapologetically passionate about modernizing the criminal justice system. I urge Mr. Shugrue to not lose sight of many of her invaluable initiatives, specifically tackling gender-based violence; expanding participation in the Drug Court and following evidence-based policy to ensure offenders with substance use disorder receive treatment over incarceration; and ensuring a more equitable justice system by continuing to follow a no-cash bail policy, which for decades has unfairly targeted low-income people and created racial inequity.

Whether you supported her or not, I urge you join me in thanking Ms. Harrington for her hard work and dedication to our communities over the last four years. As a mother to three young boys, I am proud to have included them in campaigning for Andrea, giving them firsthand experience and education in the electoral process. Being the first woman district attorney in Berkshire County is an incredible accomplishment and piece of history in itself, and it’s so important for our youngest community members to know that a woman is very much capable of doing anything a man can.

Thank you, Andrea. You undoubtedly have so much more to accomplish and much success ahead of you.

Meghan Kirby, Lenox

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September 26, 2022

The real reason why voters gave Berkshire County D.A. Andrea Harrington the boot is because she is honest, which means that she was NOT in the pocket of the elitist political establishment, who went all in for Tim Shugrue: the greedy Ambulance chasing and divorce Attorney who controversially thanked retired Judge Dan Ford after he won the election.

Joe Biden ousted Donald Trump in 2020 because the billionaires on Wall Street wanted him to be in their pocket when the Financial Elites gave Joe Biden's presidential campaign more big money than any other political candidate in U.S. history.  They saw Donald Trump as a loose cannon whom they could not control.

Lastly, 2023 is predicted to see one of the worst economic recessions since 2008, 2002 and the Great Depression of the 1930s.  The Swamp will still spend tens of trillions in "Biden Buck$", and the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates until almost all of us declare bankruptcy.  But we may not live to see 2023 if Putin takes out his nuclear weapons toy box and blows up the world - he is NOT bluffing.

Jonathan A. Melle

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November 13, 2022

Hello Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington,

As a blogger, I blogged about your political career since 2016 - 2022, and hopefully possibly beyond 2022.  I support your progressive policies in Massachusetts politics.  I believe that your professional accomplishments are praiseworthy.  The people of our native Berkshire County, Massachusetts are fortunate to have you as the first woman District Attorney.  I believe that you did a good job in this position because your heart was always in the right place, and you tried to help the people nobody else cared about.

Once again, I wish to apologize to you for the way you were mistreated by the news media, especially by the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle), the blogs, especially by blogger Dan Valenti, and by the disingenuous state and local political establishment, especially by trust fund very rich boy Sherwood Guernsey II, who is a former Massachusetts State Representative and failed candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives.  I read blog posts that falsely stated that you killed babies, that people like you are the reason why the mass shooting at the Uvalde, Texas public school occurred, and that you used black people for your own political gains while privately saying racist words against black people, and so on.  I never believed any of it.  In fact, I believe that you are a good and decent person with lofty ideals.

Some of the criticisms of you did not make sense to me.  Pittsfield Massachusetts has had an acute violent crime problem well before 2019.  It didn't make any sense to me why so many people and institutions scapegoated you for violent crime in Berkshire County.  Some of the criticisms of you centered around the allegations of political corruption.  It didn't make sense to me because you are the smallest hill among valleys of local, state and federal political corruption.  To illustrate, U.S. Representative Richie Neal only serves K Street corporate lobbyist firms, especially insurance companies.  To illustrate, U.S. Senator Ed Markey really lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and he campaigned on the Green New Deal, yet he supports GE's proposal to put a leaky landfill full of industrial chemical waste called PCBs inside of a watershed in the polluted Housatonic River in Lee, Massachusetts, over the objections of the people he represents.

I have a criticism of you, Andrea Harrington.  It comes from my own past negative experiences with the political establishment in Berkshire County during and after my dad, Bob, served as a Berkshire County Commissioner from 1997 - mid-2000.  The Democrats in state and federal politics say the loftiest of words, but when it comes down to it, they are all very corrupt.  The Democrats are all about the Almighty Dollar and power, and if you (or I) are not in their pockets, then we are toast.  Despite the fact that we are both the same age of 47 years, I dealt with these same group of corrupt career politicians in Berkshire County two decades apart from you.  I followed your failed 2022 reelection campaign, and everything that the Democrats did to oust you came as no surprise to me because I went through it all many years ago during my father's political career in Berkshire County.

I asked my mom a while ago why politicians make the most beautiful "Holy Sermon on the Mount"-like political speeches, but when it comes to their real public records, they only care about themselves and their wealthy campaign supporters and donors.  My mom replied to me, that is why so many people dislike politicians.  They say one thing, but then they do another.  That is what they are known for.  My mother said to me that I should know all of this.  I replied that I do understand it all too well.

You, Andrea Harrington, are Exhibit A in being shafted by the political establishment in Berkshire County.  All of the progressive ideals that the political establishment says they stand for in local, state and federal government, are what you embody as a politician.  But when it came down to the political establishment's own interests, they turned their backs on you because you were not in their pockets.  They replaced you with a greedy Ambulance chasing Divorce Attorney named Tim Shugrue, who controversially thanked retired Judge Dan Ford after his election night victory.  Clearly, the political establishment has their strings on their puppet, Tim Shugrue, who finally got his plum after 18 years of wanting the elected position of Berkshire County District Attorney.

I hope that you, Andrea Harrington, will continue to serve in politics beyond 2022.  As your sister high school classmate in 1993 in Pittsfield, I am proud of you and all of your achievements.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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Shugrue begins tenure as Berkshire DA by reasserting his tough on crime campaign message | WAMC

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Our Opinion: "Good luck to DA Shugrue — we look forward to holding Berkshire County's new top prosecutor accountable"

The Berkshire Eagle, Editorial, January 5, 2023

As incoming Berkshire District Attorney Timothy Shugrue took the oath of office on Wednesday, a new administration took the reins of the county’s top law enforcement office.

What will this mean for the criminal justice system in Berkshire County? We hope it entails both a smooth transition and some positive change — and we don’t say that just because we argued for a changing of the guard by endorsing DA Shugrue in his challenge against incumbent Andrea Harrington.

Incoming Berkshire district attorney Timothy Shugrue claims he didn’t get the transition help he needed. Email records show repeated outreach by Andrea Harrington’s office

Three months after a heated primary battle, the present and future Berkshire County district attorneys still don’t agree – at least about one thing: The efficiency of the transition of power from one DA to another.

Having a democratically elected district attorney means this office is subjected to the pressurization of politics. While that need not and should not engage the worst of our political instincts, the DA primary was a bitter one. Unfortunately, some of that bitterness appears to have leaked into the critical transitional process, as well. Recent Eagle reporting revealed deep disagreements between the outgoing administration and the new one, particularly over the amount of DA Shugrue was allowed to access the office’s criminal files and whether he should be sworn in as a special prosecutor in advance of taking over the office.

The latter step would have let him review confidential information related the ongoing cases his administration is about to handle. Ms. Harrington similarly requested special prosecutor status when she won the office in 2018 — not for her but for her eventual first assistant district attorney Karen Bell — and was granted that access by the previous administration. Harrington’s administration, however, rejected that request when it was made by incoming DA Shugrue. In a statement, Harrington’s office said that Ms. Bell ended up “regretting it,” although it’s not clear what the downside would have been to simply allow the incoming DA to take such a step if he finds it helpful for the transition.

Tough as it might be to put the rumbles of a recent primary in the past, what’s needed now is a sharp focus on the present and the future of the Berkshire DA’s office. We have our eye on several key cases that will bridge these two administrations who pledged very different approaches.

A case relating to the death of a North Adams man that was caused by two other drivers allegedly racing on Route 8 has unjustifiably languished for years. We hope this changes with the leadership of the DA’s office and Anthony Emard’s daughter is given a better chance at seeing justice done after her father’s death, though the sobering reality is that cases rarely, if ever, get stronger as they get older.

Meanwhile, a negligent manslaughter case that should not have been brought on the evidence that has been produced against an Adams couple — at least according to the Berkshire Superior Court judge who tossed their indictments — still hangs in the limbo of the appeals process. The appeal itself appeared to be a stalling tactic to let the Harrington administration put off closure of the case until after September’s primary, and in one of her final acts as DA Ms. Harrington on Jan. 3 asked the appeals court for an extension on the filing deadline for the requisite briefs. All this while the fate of these Adams foster parents still hangs in the balance, and as such we will be watching closely as to whether a Shugrue-led DA’s office takes a different tack on this controversial case.

DA Shugrue was sworn in alongside two key additions to the prosecutor’s office. Marianne Shelvey will serve as first assistant district attorney. It won’t be her first time as a Berkshire ADA, but she now returns to the office with a decade of experience as a prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice. While Ms. Shelvey oversees cases in superior court, Second Assistant DA Kelly Mulcahy Kemp will lead the office’s efforts in the county’s three district courts. She, too, comes with deep experience as a former chief district court prosecutor in Berkshire County, a criminal justice teacher at Berkshire Community College and, most recently, as the director of training and specialty courts in the Hampden County DA’s office. These leadership choices suggest a needed course correction from what we perceived as systemic problems within the Berkshire DA’s office in recent years — most notably a sense of sloppiness in prosecuting important cases, abuse of the great discretion vested in prosecutors’ offices and an unfortunate focus on political positioning over the pursuit of justice.

Unlike his predecessor, though, DA Shugrue was not inclined to blindly clean house. Most Superior Court prosecutors are staying put, while Jennifer Zalnasky will be staying on as chief of appeals. That’s a good sign of a DA’s office that will value ability and competency over perceived loyalty, hopefully to the benefit of the entire county’s criminal justice system. We hope that this administration will further break with the last by increasing transparency. Too often over the last four years we found inexplicable opacity in an office meant to represent the people in the court of law — from the whistleblowing revelations of former public records officer Jeanne Kempthorne to an overreliance on prewritten and press staff statements instead of direct comment from the DA on critical matters.

We want to see that change, and we look forward to holding a Shugrue administration accountable to that end. The county’s top law enforcement office deserves no less, and we wish newly sworn-in DA Shugrue luck in leading that office.

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January 7, 2023

The Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) published an editorial wishing Tim Shugrue good luck as the new Berkshire County District Attorney, while also relentlessly bashing former D.A. Andrea Harrington.  Meanwhile, WAMC's Josh Landes published a news article about Tim Shugrue always kissing retired Judge Dan Ford's dirty behind, despite Dan Ford's controversial history in the Massachusetts court system, especially him railroading Bernard Baran, who passed away in 2014, many years ago.

Tim Shugrue is an Ambulance Chasing Greedy Divorce Attorney who wanted the plum position for the past 18 years.  The political and legal establishment, along with the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) and others, are foolish to put their faith in this greedy conman.  I believe that they ousted Andrea Harrington and backed Tim Shugrue because they wanted this corrupt greed-ball in their back pockets for more of the same old secrecy and insider's only corruption that Pittsfield politics is infamously known for.  Shame on everyone who supports D.A. Tim Shugrue!  You put your own selfish interests above your values, which means you sold your souls to the Devil!

Jonathan A. Melle

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January 7, 2023

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

You are a good friend, as well as a good friend of my family over the years.  I appreciate your public advocacy work on behalf of all of the people and taxpayers who do not have a real voice in the government.  I aspire to be as open-minded as you are when it comes to politics, especially state and local politics in Berkshire County.

I don't believe that I am being closed-minded by returning the favor to the Dirty Bird and the corrupt political establishment by bashing Berkshire County District Attorney Tim Shugrue.  Since when is it O.K. to bash former Berkshire County D.A. Andrea Harrington, but it is not O.K. to bash the new D.A. Tim Shugrue?  

I feel that the political establishment in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, has long held a double standard rule that we must always kiss their dirty behinds, but they can with impunity use retribution against the people and taxpayers who do not have a real voice in the government.  I believe that Senator Ed Markey (D - HOT AIR) from Chevy Chase, Maryland, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D - Socialist millionaire) who in not from Main Street, PAC Man Richie Neal who is from K Street's corporate lobbyist firms, especially insurance companies, State Senator Paul Mark who is from Marxist-ville, John Barrett III who is from career politician-ville, Smitty Pignatelli who is from rubber stamp-ville, and Tricia Farley Bouvier, who is from the Old Country Buffet-ville, are all doing DISSERVICES to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts and beyond.  I don't have to kiss their dirty behinds because we all live in a FREE country where we are allowed to speak our good consciences against the lousy corrupt career politicians who make their living off of the people and taxpayers.

Who the Hell does Tim Shugrue think he is anyways?  He openly bashes Andrea Harrington, but he also praises retired Massachusetts Judge Dan Ford, who has a very controversial record in the state court system, especially his role in railroading Bernard Baran.

It is fact that Tim Shugrue spent his legal career chasing Ambulances and getting rich off of divorce cases.  Everyone is treating Tim Shugrue like the second coming of Jesus Christ, but it is really groupthink at its worst!  Tim Shugrue is a greed-ball Attorney that gives lawyers a bad reputation.

Best wishes,

Jonathan A. Melle

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FACT: Berkshire County Tim Shugrue is 0-2 in Superior Court trials and just dropped 13 counts of animal abuse, as of Saturday, January 28, 2023. Posted in the comment section of the blog: Planet Valenti.

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Southern Poverty Law Center expert, Berkshire DA respond to white power signs, flyers, banners in Berkshire County | WAMC

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July 17, 2023

My hand is definitely not raised. Just as crime has become worse that is something clown shoes Shagrue and Bowler promised to change. Is the sheriff even around?.. More guns on the streets more junkies, more beggars. We have a newly elected Senator. Same crap NO jobs, No new Economic development for the city Nada!

New city council members same old infighting nothing gets done except spending on worthless endeavors.

So that brings us to the 3 running for Mayor. The only thing that will change is some plum positions for friends and family and a whole lotta of BS! This will be the lowest turnout in a Pittsfield election ever. Book it.

"John Dutton" post on PlanetValenti's blog.

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Berkshire DA’s office to use $100k state grant toward suppression of gang activity, drug trafficking through law enforcement efforts, youth empowerment programs | WAMC

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August 25, 2023

Former Berkshire County District Attorney was in elected office for one term over four years from 2019 - 2022.  For many years prior to 2019, Pittsfield was always in the top ten cities by population in Massachusetts for violent crime every year, according to the FBI's annual reports.  So far in late-August 2023, Pittsfield is and will continue to be a city plagued by violent crime.  One could draw a circle/oval around inner-city Pittsfield's distressed neighborhoods to show where most of the city's violent crime takes place.  As for homelessness, it is an ongoing national crisis because housing prices are at a record high, while working class wages only increased by $5 dollars per week over the past 50 years.  The underclass who depends on social services are not being trained to work in highly skilled living wage jobs.  Pittsfield is part of the nation's "rust belt".  Pittsfield is a very economically unequal city - if not one of the most economically unequal cities in the state and nation.  Mayor Linda Tyer lives in a mansion in a Gated Community west of Berkshire Community College within a few feet of the Hancock border.  35-yearlong banker Peter Marchetti said he would have to take a pay cut to serve as Mayor, which pays an annual salary of $115,725 in fiscal year 2024, but he wants the lucrative city public pension plus perks for life.  In closing, blaming Andrea Harrington does NOT let Peter Marchetti, John Krol and Karen Kalinowsky off the hook for Pittsfield's violent crime and homelessness crises!

Jonathan A. Melle

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Letter: "Berkshire sheriff should put constitutional rights first"

The Berkshire Eagle, December 11, 2024

To the editor: I was surprised when I read the Dec. 7 Eagle article ("Recent ICE arrests of Berkshire residents spark debate over immigration detainers and justice for victims") about Berkshire Sheriff Thomas Bowler’s cooperation with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and his support for a bill to be able to hold immigrants even longer for ICE to come.

By cooperating with ICE before a trial to determine the defendant’s guilt or innocence, the sheriff is undermining and defying the Constitution of our country. The right to a fair trial by jury is enshrined in the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that “in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district where the crime was committed."

Our criminal laws are established by our democratic process. It is in the hands of the district attorney to prosecute under those laws to determine guilt or innocence. I do not see how it is up to a sheriff, or to ICE, to circumvent that process by notifying ICE to remove the defendant before he’s proven guilty. He is a potentially innocent man.

Everyone agrees that public safety is a critical concern. There is no disagreement there. That is why we have a Constitution and the laws of our society to be enforced in criminal matters by the district attorney.

It is not up to the sheriff to say whether a defendant is guilty or assume his guilt. He or she is only a public safety hazard if guilty.

By notifying ICE so that they can come and grab the defendant before he has a chance to prove his innocence, the sheriff is in effect acting like judge and jury.

I believe the sheriff is a good and honorable leader. I urge him to reconsider his position with regard to cooperation with ICE and support our Constitution and our district attorney.

Sherwood Guernsey, Williamstown

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December 11, 2024

Hello blogger Dan Valenti,

Sherwood Guernsey wants immigrants to be granted bail prior to their trials by juries instead of being held in the county jail for ICE to review their cases.

Sherwood Guernsey argues that Sheriff Tom Bowler and ICE are supporting the government circumventing immigrants' constitutional rights to a speedy trial to determine their guilt or innocence in a court of law.

Sherwood Guernsey is an old wealth, Ivy League educated member of the elitist wing of the Democratic Party who supported Kamala Harris for U.S. President in 2024.  She was a progressive prosecutor, but two years earlier in 2022, Sherwood Guernsey wrote a letter denouncing then Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington, who is also a progressive prosecutor, but 2 + 2 = 5 in politics sometimes.

Sherwood Guernsey is a former Massachusetts State Representative, an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Congress, and a latte limousine liberal who is a prime illustration as to why the Democratic Party lost the working-class vote to Donald Trump, the 53 - 47 U.S. Senate, the 220 - 215 U.S. House of Representatives, and the majority conservative Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2024.

If we were all as wealthy and privileged as Sherwood Guernsey, then we would not mention that immigrants are working some of the jobs that U.S. Citizens are competing for, the housing crisis, whereby many law-abiding people are priced out of owning and retaining a home, and the high rate of U.S. inflation whereby the government is spending many billions of dollars per fiscal year to provide costly social services and public education for the influx of immigrants during the Biden administration - not to mention our nation's huge and growing larger in numbers underclass population.

I wish that I could make somewhere around $200,000 plus state government public perks per fiscal year for life like Sheriff Tom Bowler.  I also wish that I were a trust fund baby with millions of dollars in my financial accounts like old wealth Sherwood Guernsey.  But I am the Have-NOT from Pittsfield (Massachusetts) named Jon Melle, whose last name comes from a small town named Melle, Piedmont, Italy, which has a far right national woman leader running Italy who openly supports Mussolini, but, once again, 2 + 2 = 5.

Jon Melle

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Letter: "Immigrants are entitled to due process, too"

The Berkshire Eagle, December 21, 2024

To the editor: 'Tis the season of Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and other holidays.

Let’s recognize the immigrants who travel far and near to seek the basics that we enjoy due to the rule of law and due process in our country: safety, food, shelter, clothing, jobs, education and love.

Let us find some compassion, mercy and justice in our hearts for the immigrants who have come to the Berkshires and other places in the United States of America.

I am referring to the Dec. 11 letter to the editor “Sheriff should put Constitution first,” regarding criminal law. Ensuring everyone the right to a fair trial protects each of us. Please, let’s remember the democratic process. Allow the district attorney to prosecute defendants under the criminal laws to determine the guilt or innocence of anyone. Let us remember that whether we are immigrants or not, we are innocent until proven guilty.

Sheriff Thomas Bowler: Please prioritize the United States Constitution and our district attorney before cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

With hope for fair treatment,

Marietta Rapetti Cawse, Pittsfield

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