Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins' statements on Boston Public Radio last week set off criticism from an unlikely group: defense attorneys who largely support her progressive agenda.
During anAsk The District Attorneysegment, Rollins took a call from a defendant who said he couldn't reach his public defender and didn't know the status of his case, and Rollins recommended he call the District Attorney's office to get information about his court date. A public defender called into the show to say that would be ill-advised, as people should not discuss their case with prosecutors.
Rollins then targeted the Committee for Public Counsel Services for not doing their jobs, claiming they are "overwhelmingly privileged staff that aren’t calling back poor, Black and brown people."
Former Suffolk County Sheriff and former Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral told Boston Public Radio on Thursday Rollins' initial advice wasn't inherently problematic, but the heated argument that followed may do harm to an unprecedented sense of unity between the two sides of the system that Boston has been experiencing during her tenure.
"There's a point we've reached now where the DA's office and the public defenders' office are more closely aligned and in agreement on certain kinds of issues than they ever have been in their history," she said. "I just felt a little sad that this may have somewhat derailed that ability to move forward together on certain issues of social justice upon which both sides agree."
In the wake of Rollins comments, the Boston Globe reported CPCS chief counsel Anthony J. Benedetti responded with a letter saying Rollins' statements about public defenders, were "unprovoked attacks" that "may have alienated some who believed in your campaign promises."
