Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Prosecutor leaving Montgomery County DA’s office
NORRISTOWN » The walls of his office were bare as Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan prepared to move on to the next phase of his legal career – but for that one colorful drawing by a child who offered a powerful message.
“I feel happy but strange,” the 6-year-old girl, a victim of child rape, wrote on the piece of paper that included a stick figure drawing of a child playing outdoors.
The girl, who was raped by an intruder in her family’s Hatfield home in November 2015, gave the picture to Ryan to express her feelings as he prepared to take her attacker to trial several years ago.
“There’s that saying, ‘from the mouths of babes,’ Ryan recalled. “I promised her I’d hang it up there and I’ve never taken it down.”
For Ryan, the drawing dem-
“It was clear he was going to be a superstar.”
— former Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, now a county judge
onstrates the internal conflict the little girl is going to have for the rest of her life - wanting to feel happy but having another feeling get in the way.
“Happy but strange, the dichotomy of those two feelings, for a 6-year-old trying to express that. That really spoke to me because what I interpreted that as her saying was, ‘I want to get past this but I’m always going to have that feeling and I’m happy that the person who did this is in jail… but I’m going to have to live with this and work to survive it,’” Ryan said.
Ryan convicted the girl’s attacker at a trial and the man is now serving a sentence of 24 to 70 years in prison. He called it “the worst case,” in terms of the facts, that he had to prosecute.
“But getting to be there and see that little girl come through the way that she did was extraordinary to me,” said Ryan, reflecting on one of the most meaningful moments of his prosecutorial career.
While all the cases he prosecuted “mean something and are important,” Ryan said it was that one case of which he is most proud.
“It had a lot less to do with seeing someone behind bars, in the grand scheme of things, as much as it did seeing the system work for a family and a little girl who suffered an unspeakable trauma and was able to survive and continue to do so,” Ryan said as he glanced at the child’s art work.
“Seeing the strength of that family to overcome it and to do everything that they could to help their daughter and their sister survive that experience was very heartwarming for me and speaks about what it’s all about,” Ryan said as he prepared to leave his job as a prosecutor.
Ryan’s last day as a prosecutor was on May 25, and he is leaving to join the Philadelphia-based law firm of Laffey, Bucci & Kent as a civil litigator representing individuals who have been injured, with a focus on victims of crime who have suffered physical or emotional injuries.
“I’m extremely excited to, in part, continue to work on behalf of individuals who have been victimized, especially individuals who have been victimized during the course of a crime,” said Ryan, 31, a married father of one, adding his prosecutorial experience helping victims has prepared him for his new role.
Ryan, a 2009 graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and then the Widener University Delaware Law School in 2012, began working for the district attorney’s office as an intern while still in law school. He was hired by the office full-time in August 2012 and cut his teeth in the pretrial, juvenile, appellate and trial divisions before being named captain of the sex crimes unit in January 2015. Ryan has held the post of assistant chief of the trials division overseeing the Family Protection Unit since October 2017.
“It was clear he was going to be a superstar. We wanted to have him on the team. He has proved to be just an outstanding person, an outstanding lawyer and just a real credit to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office,” said former District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who hired Ryan and now is a county judge.
Kevin R. Steele, the current district attorney, said he’s disappointed to lose a promising young attorney and said he will miss Ryan personally and professionally.
“From day one, Stew has been one of our best prosecutors. His methodical but compassionate approach to presenting sexual assault cases, combined with his ability to connect with juries, has made him very successful as a prosecutor,” Steele said.
Ryan, who was part of the team that prosecuted and convicted entertainer Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges will return briefly as a “special prosecutor” during Cosby’s sentencing hearing in September. That trial thrust Ryan into the international spotlight.
Ryan also assisted Steele and co-prosecutor Michelle Henry at the trial of former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who was convicted by a jury in 2016 of charges she orchestrated the illegal disclosure of secret grand jury information to the media and then engaged in acts designed to conceal and cover up her conduct.
“Stew Ryan leaving our office is a huge loss,” said Deputy District Attorney Thomas W. McGoldrick, who interviewed a young Ryan for the office’s intern program. “I liked him from the moment I met him. He has an excellent sense of humor – it’s a very dry sense of humor – and he has kept me laughing since the day he joined our office.”
Despite his excitement about beginning the next phase of his career, Ryan, who grew up in East Norriton and Whitpain townships, said he leaves the district attorney’s office with “deep sadness.”
“I still love everything about this job and this office and the people that are in it. So, it’s a difficult decision to make but one that I felt was the right one but it doesn’t make me any less sad to be leaving,” Ryan said.
“I’ve been extremely lucky to work in an office that has and has seen a number of extremely talented attorneys who are committed to seeking justice and the right result in each and every case that we see come through here,” said Ryan.
Ryan said he’s been proud to be a public servant. Humbly, Ryan added he never could have made that sacrifice without the support of his wife, his parents and extended family and friends.
“A public servant is not the only one that’s serving. They have friends and family who serve alongside them because they are surrendering time that they would otherwise get to have with that person. If you talk about people who deserve recognition, those are the people,” Ryan said.