The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New Haven state’s attorney named CT’s top prosecutor
After three hours of interviews and an hour of private deliberations, the Criminal Justice Commission on Thursday chose Patrick Griffin as Connecticut’s next chief state’s attorney following months of turmoil over accusations the former top prosecutor tried to influence raises for himself and his staff.
Griffin, who has served as the New Haven State’s Attorney, will start in his new role Friday, according to Commission Chair State Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald.
The commission also interviewed Hartford State’s Attorney Sharmese Walcott and was slated to
interview former Litchfield State’s Attorney Dawn Gallo, but she bowed out after being chosen as a finalist. It was not immediately clear Thursday why Gallo dropped out.
Griffin and Walcott were each interviewed by the commission for about 90 minutes before the body went into executive session to make their choice. Griffin will fill the remainder of the four-year term of former Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo Jr., who retired on March 31 before he faced a probe by the commission for potential improprieties.
Griffin, whose term expires in 2026, was supported by community leaders who appreciated his outreach as the New Haven State’s Attorney since 2016.
“He’s not someone I’ve had to seek out,” said Leonard Jahad, executive director of the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program in New Haven. “He’s in the Zoom meetings, he’s in the community and he’s had the courage to speak out.”
Griffin told the commission he faced challenges in his job as New Haven State’s Attorney, including the investigation into Hamden police officer Devin Eaton who shot an unarmed woman in 2019. The officer pleaded no contest to first-degree assault in January. Eaton agreed never to work as a police officer in the United States as part of a plea agreement reached with Griffin. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27 when he could receive 18 months in prison.
Griffin and Walcott acknowledged repeatedly there were “disparities” across the state’s 13 judicial districts for people of color. “There’s no question that there are disparities in sentencing recommendations and in bail recommendations,” Griffin said.
But he said he was confident “there was an appetite for change” within the Division of Criminal Justice, including addressing disparities, diversity and transparency.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, which relied on data from the state’s 2019 prosecutorial transparency law, Black individuals are convicted more often than whites in every geographical area court in the state and people convicted of drug offenses are 2.4 times more likely to get prison sentences in some parts of the state than others.
Griffin and Walcott also agreed the agency needed to cast a wider net to have a more diverse set of prosecutors.
The process to find a new chief state’s attorney started in March after Colangelo retired amid accusations he hired the daughter of a high-ranking state Office of Policy and Management official in exchange for raises for himself and others.
When asked Thursday about morale within the Division of Criminal Justice by the commission, Griffin noted that “negative news stories and the issues the division has confronted in the past few months has been a drag on morale.”
Griffin has been a state prosecutor for 27 years. He was appointed in 2016 as New Haven State’s Attorney and led the chief state’s attorney’s Cold Case and Shooting Task Force. In 2014, Griffin received the Oliver Ellsoworth Prosecutor of the Year award. He is an adjunct professor at the University of New Haven’s School of Public Safety and an adjunct lecturer with the New Haven and Waterbury police academies.
Walcott has been a state prosecutor since 2007. She was appointed as the Hartford State’s Attorney in 2020 after Gail Hardy was transferred following an investigation of allegations that deadly police use-offorce shooting investigations were taking years, and in some cases, a decade to complete.
“The next chief state’s attorney will have a lot to prove,” advocates from the CT ACLU said in a statement this week. “They will have to show, by their actions and not just words, whether they are committed to creating accountability for state’s attorneys to prevent the kinds of corruption and politicization that have shown up in that system for decades.”