Eagle Column 7-21-04
Berkshire Eagle
DA's race is a squeaker
Saturday, August 21, 2004 - On its face, it should look like David Capeless, the county's district attorney and one of two candidates in the Democratic primary for the post of Berkshire County DA, will be the big winner.
Tim Shugrue, his opponent and a former assistant DA himself, has an uphill battle. Capeless was hand-picked by a man I loved, the late DA Gerry Downing, to be his top assistant. There was no big case handled by the DA's office that Capeless wasn't in up to his ears. He did crucial work in the Wayne Lo case when Lo, the Simon's Rock killer, was arguing that he was mentally unstable and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Capeless got his verdict and Lo is rotting in prison where he belongs. Capeless was also instrumental in convicting Lewis Lent, the killer of Jimmy Bernardo.
Capeless has done his job and done it well. He was picked for the acting spot by Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who undoubtedly scoped out the lay of the land and knew that if he appointed a local Republican as acting DA, his candidate would be trounced at the next election.
Let us remember that district attorneys are among the most powerful officials in our society. As the disgraced former chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, Sol Wachtler, once quipped, a grand jury, deftly run by a DA, "would indict a ham sandwich." In fact, I think it is reasonable to suggest that the DA's job is the single most powerful job in Berkshire County.
I talked to both candidates at some length and was impressed by Capeless' dignity and commitment to the job and by his solemnity. Likewise, I was impressed by Shugrue's approachability and loquaciousness.
When asked what he had done, Capeless came up with an impressive laundry list of cases that he had worked on and successfully prosecuted. He started his career in Cambridge, where he worked with some of the top figures in Massachusetts law enforcement, many of whom are now judges and district attorneys. He is clearly a detail-oriented, no-nonsense, hard-bitten career prosecutor. He's dedicated to putting bad people in jail. Period.
Shugrue was a longtime assistant DA and then became a full-time defense attorney. He knows both sides of the street and is more of a social worker-type. He helped found a program that takes an integrated approach to solving criminal problems before they happen and he helped found "Kid's Place," a program offering alternatives for young people, much as our Railroad Street Youth Project does in South County. He is very concerned about the influx of drugs, such as heroin and OxyContin, to our region. He believes that a big part of the DA's responsibility involves reaching out to the communities that make up the Berkshires.
The Berkshire County legal establishment, people like Sheriff Carmen Massimiano and Mayor John Barrett of North Adams, have put themselves foursquare in the Capeless camp. Shugrue says that many members of the bar, such as Elizabeth Quigley, have been working to help him. Some of them, scared of alienating a sitting DA, he says, have been doing so quietly.
When I asked the two men about corrupt police, both agreed that corrupt cops were a clear and present danger to the criminal justice system because they undermine law enforcement's credibility. Capeless says that he has indicted corrupt cops and Shugrue has been generally described as being a first-rate defense attorney. That means the police are aware that it has been his job to make them look bad. On the other hand, he is also in a position to know how to spot any bad apples in a police department.
The general assumption has been that Capeless will win. He has the political establishment on his side, has done a very good job since becoming DA and has campaigned hard. Even those favoring his opponent believe that Shugrue has worked hard in this campaign, that he is a man of integrity and that he has been effectively playing the "outsider" card by saying to Pittsfield: "Take the streets back." On the other hand, Shugrue has been a defense attorney, which has made him a skilled litigator but has also had him defending some folks who are not exactly heroes to the population.
In short, we have an election with two qualified candidates. The prediction is for an extremely light turnout so that anything could happen. While many thought the election would be a runaway for Capeless, a lot of people, including some supporters of Capeless, think this could be a squeaker.
Alan Chartock, a Great Barrington resident, is president and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany.

- posted by Alan @ 8/25/2004 07:09:00 AM