Timothy Shugrue has practiced law for 36 years, and is the founder and creator of the Berkshire County Children’s Advocacy Center- The Kid’s Place. In September, he’ll go toe to toe with Berkshire DA Andrea Harrington – who has all but confirmed her decision to seek a second four-year term – in the Democratic primary.
He says his time spent as both a prosecutor and defense attorney has given him the experience needed to helm the Berkshire DA’s office.
“I think there's a disconnect between law enforcement and the DA’s office,” Shugrue told WAMC. “And it's also, there's a disconnect with the community. I represent many people in the community, I represent a lot of store owners, a lot of people that are involved in businesses, and this office doesn't prosecute theft. And that's a problem for us. And it's a problem for people that are seeing their merchandise go out their stores that are hardworking individuals. Police investigate, and that particular office will not prosecute those crimes. I think that's a misservice. And I think it's bad for Berkshire County.”
In 2018, Harrington ran as a progressive reformer against incumbent Paul Caccaviello, who battled the perception that he had been handpicked by his long-serving predecessor David Capeless. Capeless abruptly resigned in March 2018, with Caccaviello serving out the remainder of his term before Harrington’s victory in a three-way primary race that fall. Sheriff Tom Bowler, a critic of criminal justice reform who supported Caccaviello in 2018, has donated to Shugrue’s campaign. Other Berkshire County elected officials who backed Caccaviello have also rallied around Shugrue, including North Adams City Council President Lisa Hall Blackmer. The candidate says he doesn’t see this election as a retread of the last DA race.
“Back in 2004, I ran against David Capeless, and I ran on a more progressive platform, and I think a little bit more progressive than Paul, but not progressive in the sense of not prosecuting crimes,” said Shugrue. “I'm talking about programs within the community, such as the Kid’s Place and working in outreach. I want to get the DA’s office back to the schools.”
He says he’s committed to doing work in the community on preventative measures to head off crime.
“I'm going to offer community support, doing programs, and at the same time, being tough on criminals, and also dealing correctly with people who may find themselves in a bad situation who have haven't had the resources or the availability to get services,” the attorney told WAMC. “I don't believe in just dismissing cases. If I'm going to have somebody who comes in that may have got themselves in trouble, there's diversion programs we can use within the system that gets people both mental health counseling, addiction counseling, all sorts of issues. Make people earn that dismissal. So, they stay clean six months, get a job, whatnot, and then we can leave that so we can keep people's records clean. So I do agree that there is a need for that type of it. But I also agree that there's a bigger need right now to make sure that we prosecute the true criminals who are really destroying the county.”
Shugrue says that meeting with police chiefs across Berkshire County opened his eyes to rifts between the DA’s office and law enforcement.
“We owe the police officers a responsibility to tell them what's happening in cases that they've investigated,” he said. “Because they're being told later on, this is what happened, or we dismissed this without their input. I think their input is important. So I hear what they're saying.”
In addition to once again prosecuting low-level crimes, Shugrue says he wouldn’t dismiss drug possession charges as DA.
“There's a special diversion program that's already in place that this office doesn't use as frequently as it should,” he said. “It’s called Chapter 276, Section 87, which is a pretrial diversion. So, if someone gets charged with something, charged with possession of heroin, you bring them in, but you don't just dismiss the case because of the possession charge. You give them the services that they can't get if they didn't have the court services paying for them, such as counseling, and helping them get jobs, helping them get them clean first. So that's what I do as a defense lawyer, make sure my clients work through their addiction issues if they have them, and then we work with trying to get them employed. So at the end of that period of time, if they succeeded with what we've asked them to do, their cases get dismissed, they have no criminal record. But at the same time, too, they have now earned their right and they also become productive community members.”
Shugrue was asked for his stance on addressing systemic racism within the criminal justice system, one of the pillars of Harrington’s 2018 campaign.
“Things have happened in the last couple of years where we've seen this awful, systematic racism that exists across the country that people just didn't really notice and see,” he told WAMC. “That's an important conversation to have. And it's important to have everybody in the community part of the DA’s office and part of that so that we make sure that there's no bias, motive, racism, and things along those lines that affect the way we do things. So it's always important to have those open communication and you’ve got to listen and hear. And that's the thing that's really important about being a DA- You just can't dictate, you've got to be able to listen to the community. What are your concerns? Be able to be accessible, be transparent, and then be able to answer back to questions.”
Independent candidate Robert Sullivan released a statement Tuesday that he is dropping out of the race and endorsing Shugrue. With no declared Republican candidate, the Democratic primary on September 6th will likely decide the next Berkshire DA — though Caccaviello mounted an unsuccessful write-in campaign against Harrington after losing the primary in 2018. The general election follows on November 8th.