Michael T. (Mike) Dugan, DA of Deschutes County (Bend), Oregon, was sitting in a courtroom during the sentencing of a probation violator while waiting for another case to be called, when he heard a loud noise in the back of the room. He turned around to see a woman—who turned out to be the wife of the man being sentenced—hysterically slapping the back of her 18-month-old child, who was apparently choking. Dugan says, “I jumped up and ran back and she started running with the kid toward the front of the court. I said, ‘Give me the kid!’ so she tossed me the kid and I grabbed it around the stomach, gave two sudden jerks, and out popped a jawbreaker candy. The mom grabbed the baby back from me, and kept saying, ‘Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!’ I told her, ‘Don’t give him any more jawbreakers.’ Although Dugan says, “I don’t even know the Heimlich Maneuver,” that apparently was exactly what he performed, instinctively, to save the child’s life. Downplaying his heroic actions, Dugan declared, “I just jumped up, threw down my files and did it. That’s what needed to be done.” Incidentally, the Heimlich Institute says that slapping a choking victim’s back only makes the situation worse, and emphasizes that its maneuver is the only safe method of saving a choking victim.
Bob McMahan, prosecutor coordinator for Arkansas and new president of the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators (NAPC), was not able to be present for his official “seating” as NAPC’s representative on the NDAA Board of Directors, but he had a good excuse. He was coaching his son’s Little League team in a regional championship tournament in Collierville, Tennessee. The team, the Central Arkansas Buzz, had never gone to a championship round before and lost its first two games. McMahan, whose 12-year-old son, Drew, is shortstop on the team, said, “I believe we were capable of doing much better and hopefully next time we will.”
In most states, the murder of a police officer is a capital crime, but New York currently has a unique problem with capital cases. This was dramatized when the office of Brooklyn DA Charles J. (Joe) Hynes (an NDAA board member) filed first-degree murder charges against a man charged with killing two police detectives, but did not seek the death penalty because New York’s death penalty law is in limbo as the result of a court ruling. This was the first such prosecutorial decision since the state’s highest appeals court ruled that the state’s death penalty law is flawed. Some prosecutors, under the assumption that the state legislature would quickly address the ruling by enacting a new death penalty law, said they would proceed with new capital cases anyway. However, no new law was passed. As The New York Times described it, since the Brooklyn case is what death-penalty proponents describe as “the very definition of a capital crime …the impact of the court decision has emerged clearly.” Said DA Hynes, “There is no viable death penalty in New York right now.” As of this writing, legislative leaders could not agree on when they would address the issue.
In a profile of John W. Briscoe, prosecuting attorney of Ralls County, Missouri, appearing in the Missouri Prosecutor, the newsletter of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Briscoe recalls his proudest and funniest moments as a prosecutor. He says, “It’s always a proud moment when you can stand in court and tell a jury that you represent the people of Missouri.” His funniest moment: When a defense lawyer declared, “A guy can’t even get away with sodomy with a combine in Ralls County.” For you city folks, a combine is a machine for cutting and threshing grain on a farm.
Former NDAA President Robert M.A. (Bob) Johnson, Anoka County (Minnesota) attorney, represented NDAA at the ninth annual world conference of the International Association of Prosecutors in Seoul, South Korea, in September. Former NDAA President John Kaye, Monmouth County (New Jersey) prosecutor, is a member of the IAP Executive Committee. More than 600 prosecutors from 80 countries attended the conference.
New State Officers
In Louisiana, Brent Coreil, DA of the 13th Judicial District (Ville Platte), is the new president of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association. Scott M. Perrilloux, DA of the 21st Judicial District (Amite), is the new first vice president. The Assistant DAs’ Section elected John J. Molaison, Jr., of the 24th Judicial District (Gretna), president of the section.
In Michigan, Stuart J. Dunnings III, prosecuting attorney of Ingham County (Lansing), is the 2004-05 president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan. Ronald Frantz, prosecuting attorney of Ottawa County (Grand Haven), is vice president.
In Indiana, Kim Hall, prosecuting attorney of the 44th Judicial Circuit (Starke County), is the new chairman of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council. J. Scott Callahan, prosecuting attorney of the 81st Judicial Circuit (Lawrence County), was elected vice chairman.
Honors
John M. Tyson, Jr., district attorney of Alabama’s 13th Judicial Circuit (Mobile), has been named Alabama District Attorney of the Year in 2004.
Deaths
Dr. Paul F. Walsh, Sr., 80, father of Paul F. Walsh, Jr., NDAA president and district attorney of Bristol County (New Bedford), Massachusetts, died in September after a brief illness. A dentist by profession, Dr. Walsh was also an influential figure in New Bedford political and civic affairs for half a century, during which he served as a member of the city’s school committee, as clerk magistrate and as first full-time head of the state racing commission. Only a few weeks before his death, he was named to the state Steamship Authority Port Council. He was a navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War. A standout tailback on New Bedford High School’s 1941 state-champion football team, he was named to the All-American High School Football Team that year. Dr. Walsh retained such a lifelong active interest in sports, that he was one of the rare public figures for whom a sports facility was named during his lifetime. In recent years, friends reported seeing him practicing his golf swing at the field named in his honor.
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