Supervising prosecutor Kennedy retiring from New London courthouse
New London — Michael E. Kennedy, supervising prosecutor at the busy Broad Street courthouse known as Geographical Area 10, is retiring April 28 after more than 20 years as a state's attorney.
"It's time," the 64-year-old Groton resident said while reflecting on his career during an interview in his office last week. He said he has no immediate plans beyond not going to work on May 1 and possibly competing in a few triathlon races this summer.
During his tenure at GA10, he negotiated plea agreements with defense attorneys and judges on thousands of cases and took to trial the ones that could not be resolved. He was cross-deputized as a federal prosecutor to pursue those who had committed gang and firearm offenses. He worked with the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction to create the Veterans Jail Diversion program, which has become a model for other diversionary programs.
Kennedy was promoted to supervisor in December 2011.
"The best days were when we would dispose of thorny cases, or difficult cases, in a manner that was fair to the victims, fair to the state and to the defendant," Kennedy said. "I think we understand this is everybody's court. This is the people's court. We do our best to treat everybody fairly and with dignity."
The worst days, he said, were when his understaffed office scrambled to get through huge dockets. Due to state budget concerns, the Division of Criminal Justice did not hire a prosecutor to replace him when he took over the role of supervisory assistant state's attorney from his predecessor, Peter A. McShane.
Judges and attorneys he worked with said they would miss Kennedy's ability to handle his stressful job while retaining his sense of humor.
"First and foremost, he was a professional, and I'm really going to miss working with him," said Senior Judge Kevin P. McMahon, the presiding judge at GA10 for much of Kennedy's tenure. "He and I had shouting matches, screaming arguments, fights, and usually five minutes later, or maybe the next day, it would be back to business."
Hillary B. Strackbein, administrative judge for the New London district, said she has worked with Kennedy on and off since she was appointed to the bench in 2003.
"He's always been a professional with a good sense of humor," Strackbein said. "It's a high-volume courthouse with a lot of working parts. I'm really going to miss him."
Kennedy served in the Navy for six years as a surface warfare officer, which he said helped him to understand the needs of veterans who find themselves in legal trouble.
"Nobody ever shot at me," Kennedy said. "I'm not a combat veteran. But I think I have more insight into veterans than a non-veteran. We did not want to treat veterans of the Gulf War and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars like Vietnam vets have been treated. We initiated a program where we would steer vets who had been arrested into treatment programs, if called for, for mental health or addiction."
His supervisor, New London State's Attorney Michael L. Regan, said he has not had to manage the GA10 courthouse with Kennedy in charge of the prosecutor's office.
"There's never a problem for me while Kennedy is running it," Regan said. "Michael was really kind of an innovator in diversionary programs, which started with the veterans. Now that's a statutorily created program, and there's more diversionary programs for low-level offenders that Michael has worked on."
Regan said five people from within the Division of Criminal Justice have applied for Kennedy's position and that his office is setting up interviews.
"He's going to be a hard person to replace," Regan said.
Defense attorney William T. Koch Jr. said Kennedy is "a gentleman with a great sense of humor and a big heart when it was appropriate for a prosecutor to have a big heart." Kennedy would nickname cases, Koch said, remembering one client whom Kennedy, an avid reader, referred to as a character in T.S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral" because the case had a similar set of circumstances.
"He would look at people as human beings, not criminal defendants, and treat them accordingly," Koch said. "He never forgot he was a regular person just like the people he was prosecuting."
A Cheshire native, Kennedy graduated from Washington College in Maryland in 1974. In 1976, he went to the Navy's Officer Candidate School, then served for six years. Afterwards, he worked for a family business and a local defense contractor before enrolling, at age 32, in the New England School of Law.
Kennedy graduated from law school in 1988 and worked for a year as a research clerk, in civil law, in New London Superior Court. He then worked for seven years at Norwich's Brown Jacobson law firm, where he tried a criminal case against prosecutor Kevin T. Kane, who would eventually become the chief state's attorney. Kane had to give the case a "nolle," or not prosecute it due to an issue with evidence, Kennedy said.
Kennedy went to work for the gang unit at the Office of the Chief State's Attorney in 1996. He transferred to GA10 in 1998.
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