DUTCHESS COUNTY – Anthony Parisi, the current Major Crimes Bureau chief for the Dutchess County District Attorney’s Office is campaigning to be the county’s next district attorney and is proposing added services to the office when he takes office in January.
Parisi is campaigning to replace his retiring boss, District Attorney William Grady, who is stepping down at the end of the year. Grady is the longest-serving DA in the state and hired Parisi 25 years ago. Together, the two men have prosecuted some of the county’s most heinous criminals resulting in Parisi rising through the ranks of the office under Grady’s leadership.
Bureau Chief Parisi said there is a need for additional technology and innovation in the office to assist prosecutors in securing convictions of those charged with crimes. Parisi noted that innovative technology is being released frequently and offers numerous tools that help law enforcement. “I am running for district attorney to keep our communities safe by working closely with the police on “smart” crime prevention strategies,” Parisi said, referring to the tools he calls “intelligence-led policing technology.” Parisi has also renewed his call for improvements in the transparency of the district attorney’s office that he is seeking.
Crime victims who are often intimidated by their assailants will benefit from the added “Victim Contact Portal” that Parisi said will give victims the ability to check on the status of the offender and the case itself at any time of the day or night, providing what he says is “one more layer of assurance that victims need and deserve.”
Citing the rise in hate crimes across the nation, Parisi’s proactive approach will include establishing a position of a “Hate Crimes Prosecutor” to ensure that offenders are prosecuted under the appropriate laws that are in place for offenders who commit specific crimes against others.
Parisi also plans to institute a “Conviction Integrity Unit” to ensure the justice system works to convict the proper person while addressing past wrongs, such as Exoneree Dewey Bozella. Dewey Bozella spent 26 years in prison after being convicted of the murder of a 92-year-old Poughkeepsie woman in 1977. He was released in 2009 after evidence that exonerated him but never given to his attorney in 1977 was produced. In 2015 Dutchess County legislators agreed to pay Bozella $7.6 million for the wrongful incarceration. “It’s past time to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve,” said Parisi.
The threat of school violence is never-ending, with 58 school shootings in 2023 as of October 3, 2023. Parisi plans to bring several assets together in January to create a multi-agency task force to address the root causes of violence and school shootings to proactively prevent the horrific incidents from occurring.
The veteran prosecutor is a lifelong resident of Dutchess County. “I grew up and went to school in Millbrook before I went to college at Fordham and then earned my law degree from Western New England Law School,” he said. He resides in Beekman with his wife Sinead McLoughlin where the couple are raising their two daughters.
*The above is sponsored content paid for by Anthony Parisi for Dutchess County District Attorney.
