Opioid crisis is priority, Clegg says
District attorney-elect will put focus on ‘rehabilitation rather than incarceration’
KINGSTON, N.Y. David Clegg said Thursday that tackling the opioid problem in Ulster County will be his number one priority as the county’s new district attorney. To that end, Clegg, who emerged Wednesday as the victor in the hard-fought race to become the county’s top prosecutor, said he already has reached out to Vin Martello, director of the county’s opioid prevention and strategy and coordinator of the Ulster County Opioid Prevention Task Force, to see how the two offices can work together to address the drug epidemic.
Democrat Clegg defeated Republican Michael J. Kavanagh by 77 votes out of more than 52,000 cast, according to the Ulster County Board of Elections. Clegg will be the first Democrat to lead the District Attorney’s Office in 162 years.
Kavanagh can challenge the results of the election, though he would need an appellate court to reverse the rulings of state Supreme Court Justice Richard McNally on at least 78 pro-Clegg ballots to overturn the result.
McNally spent the last week ruling on nearly 300 challenged
absentee and affidavit ballots after the race was too close to call both at the end of Election Day and after the initial tally of paper ballots.
Kavanagh could not be reached for comment Wednesday or Thursday.
Clegg, 66, of Woodstock, said he expects to bring a new approach to the District Attorney’s Office than that taken by his predecessors.
“It’s a community justice approach” that will focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration, he said.
“Obviously we’re going to protect public safety and make our county healthy,”
Clegg said. “But being that drug addiction is a significant part of our criminal justice system, if we can rehabilitate rather than incarcerate, that’s going to be a good thing.”
Clegg said the new direction of the office won’t extend to those who commit violent crimes against others. Those people, he said, will continue to be prosecuted as they are now.
“If you’re robbing a bank, you’re going to be prosecuted. If you’re harming someone, you’re going to be prosecuted,” he said. “If you’re violent toward women or in any way causing harm toward others, you’re going to be prosecuted.”
He said, though, that “there will be times when people will do something that is seriously wrong when you will decide that incarceration isn’t right.”
Clegg said that in the coming days, he expects to reach out to outgoing District Attorney Holley Carnright to understand the policies and procedures now in place in the office as well as start meeting with assistant district attorneys. Kavanagh is currently the county’s chief assistant district attorney.
“We have to talk to each and everyone in the office and make sure we’re on the same page and decide the best way to move forward,” he said.
Carnright, a Republican, chose not to seek reelection after serving three four-year terms.
Barring a successful appeal by Kavanagh, Clegg will take office on Jan. 1, 2020.