Who Will Replace Connecticut's Top Prosecutor? Here's the Short List
The Criminal Justice Commission Tuesday announced its list of four candidates that are the finalist to replace outgoing Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane.
January 14, 2020 at 09:56 AM
5 minute read
The state's Criminal Justice Commission Tuesday disclosed the names of four prosecutors who are finalists to replace Kevin Kane as Connecticut's next chief state's attorney.
Kane, 76, was the chief state's attorney for 13 years. He stepped down from the role in December, when John Russotto became the state's acting chief state's attorney.
The commission is set to conduct interviews during a public meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Jan. 30 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Later that day, it is expected to name Kane's replacement from among these candidates.
Here are the finalists, listed alphabetically:
Richard Colangelo Jr.
Colangelo has served as the state's attorney for the Judicial District of Stamford/Norwalk since July 2015.
According to his biography on the state's website, he has tried all types of major felony cases, and is involved in criminal investigations and criminal justice education.
Colangelo formed the Technical Investigations Unit of Southwest Connecticut, a regional task force of nine police departments that pool resources to examine computers and mobile devices in the course of criminal investigations.
Colangelo is a longtime prosecutor who has specialized in child exploitation cases involving the internet. He graduated from the Quinnipiac University School of Law in 1992, and has taught criminal justice programs in the state's community college system since 1995. He is also chairman of several groups, including the State Board of Examiners for Psychologists.
He declined to comment for this report.
Kevin Lawlor
Lawlor has served as deputy chief state's attorney for operations since July 2018. Previously, he spent 12 years as state's attorney for the Judicial District of Ansonia/Milford.
According to his LinkedIn pages, Lawlor oversees appellate, civil litigation, Medicaid fraud, white-collar crime, cold cases, witness protection, and workers' compensation fraud matters as deputy chief state's attorney for operations.
A prosecutor since 1995, Lawlor has prosecuted sex crimes, especially those involving young children. He is a founding member of the Department of Criminal Justice Diversity Committee, and one of three chairs of the Governor's Task Force for Justice for Abused Children.
Lawlor graduated from the University of Connecticut and the Quinnipiac University School of Law. He teaches criminal law in the Legal Studies Department at Quinnipiac University, and also teaches at the University of New Haven.
Lawlor has also received accolades, including the 2018 Outstanding Accomplishment Award from the Connecticut chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators. He declined to comment for this report.
Erik Lohr
Lohr has been the associate attorney general for legal counsel in the Office of the Attorney General since January 2019. He began his legal career as a prosecutor in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney.
According to his biography on the attorney general's website, Lohr has served in the Office of Attorney General since 2008, first as an assistant attorney general in its Child Protection Department, and then as the head of its Employment Rights Department.
Before law school, Lohr served as a reactor operator aboard a U.S. Navy fast-attack nuclear submarine, and as staff instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Unit, formerly located in Windsor.
Lohr is an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law and has been an active member of its adjunct faculty for more than a decade. He has taught at least one course every year since 2007. He was a litigation associate at Hartford-based Tyler, Cooper & Alcorn. He did not respond to a request for comment for this report.
Maureen Platt
Platt has served as state's attorney for the Judicial District of Waterbury since June 2011.
Platt leads one of the state's busiest adult and juvenile prosecutor's offices.
Before joining the Judicial District of Waterbury, she was the senior assistant state's attorney in Middletown.
Platt also dealt with domestic violence cases as prosecutor in Bridgeport from 1998 to 2000. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was of counsel for Schettino & Temchin, worked as an assistant state's attorney for the state's Division of Criminal Justice, and was a judicial clerk for U.S. Magistrate F. Owen Egan of the U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut. She got her law degree from Western New England College School of Law in 1981.
Platt told the Connecticut Law Tribune Tuesday, "It's an honor to be considered for this very important position."
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