3 finalists to be interviewed for top prosecutor

ROCKY HILL — A state commission is set to interview three finalists for Connecticut’s top prosecutor job next week to succeed Richard Colangelo, who retired in March following an investigation that questioned his hiring of a budget official’s daughter.

The Criminal Justice Commission

has scheduled a May 12 meeting to question the chief state’s attorney candidates, who include veteran state prosecutors Dawn Gallo, Patrick Griffin and Sharmese Walcott.

After the interviews, the panel is slated to take public comment on the finalists and appoint one of them to the post.

Gallo retired last month as the

Litchfield state’s attorney, capping a 24-year career as a state prosecutor.

Griffin is now the New Haven state’s attorney and has been a state prosecutor since 1995. Walcott was appointed Hartford state’s attorney in 2020 and started her state prosecutor career in 2007.

Colangelo decided in February to retire on March 31 rather than face potential termination hearings

before the Criminal Justice Commission.

The commission was considering such hearings after an independent investigation ordered by Gov. Ned Lamont cast “doubt on the integrity” of Colangelo’s 2020 hiring of the daughter of the budget official while pushing that official for pay raises for high-ranking state’s attorneys. Colangelo denied wrongdoing.