With His Day in Court, D.A. Wins Trial, Boosts Morale

Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas won his first jury trial in 11 years Wednesday after making a surprise appearance at the West Justice Center in Westminster, stunning defense attorneys and his own deputies alike by tackling the case of man accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.

Initially, it hardly seemed a fair fight: Deputy Public Defender Steve Martinez, only three years out of law school, against Rackauckas, a veteran of 16 years in the prosecutor’s office who spent the past eight years as a judge on the Municipal and Superior courts.

But after unanimously pronouncing the guilt of defendant George Anthony Arroyo on both misdemeanor counts, jurors agreed it was Martinez who won hands down on courtroom style.

“I voted for [Rackauckas] and frankly, as a taxpayer, I expected a better presentation,” said foreman James Murphy, a loan analyst from Westminster who said he immediately recognized that it wasn’t just any deputy prosecutor at the counsel table.

“He was a little choppy,” Murphy said.

Rackauckas admitted Wednesday to fumbling a bit with exhibits during closing arguments, but pronounced the trial “a good experience for me.” He said he wanted foremost to understand what his prosecutors have to deal with day-to-day.

His first revelation: The case he spent three days prosecuting didn’t need to go to a jury in the first place. That’s because the defendant was on probation for a prior drug offense, and the assault charges could have been heard by a judge during a probation violation hearing.

Rackauckas said he is creating a tracking procedure for the branch courts to make sure unnecessary duplications like the Arroyo trial aren’t repeated.

He also got a firsthand look at how little time his deputies have to prepare for trial in misdemeanor cases. Like them, he was given his case about an hour before the trial was to start.

With little time to talk with witnesses before they testified, he confronted unexpected complications. Arroyo’s girlfriend, for instance, spent most of her time on the stand downplaying her statements to police on the night she was kicked numerous times and thrown to the ground.

Public Defender Carl C. Holmes praised Rackauckas for jumping back into the courtroom. The two squared off on opposing sides in the 1970s and early 1980s, Holmes said, “and he wasn’t choppy then.”

“The district attorney is expected to win, and if he’d have lost, he would have looked bad,” Holmes said. “It showed a lot of courage.”

Martinez, who did a double take when Rackauckas walked in Monday, said he was happy to have the county’s top prosecutor in the courtroom. He normally would have been opposed by another deputy also just a stone’s throw out of law school.

“This is the first time I’ve faced a prosecutor who was more seasoned, and there’s always things to learn from trying a case with someone with that depth of experience,” Martinez said.

The two lawyers were congenial during trial and joked out of the jury’s presence with Commissioner Martin G. Engquist. At one point, Rackauckas jumped up and lent a hand as Martinez unrolled 150 feet of neon orange tape to demonstrate to jurors a prosecution witness’ distance from the crime scene.

Curious prosecutors and defense attorneys slipped into the back of the courtroom to monitor the trial. Veteran prosecutor Bryan Brown, who supervises the misdemeanor deputies, said the unannounced visit by the boss was welcomed.

“It has taken morale and shot it right up because they can see that he understands the issues they face,” Brown said.

Some of the next hires planned at the department, for example, will be investigators to work on misdemeanor cases, department spokeswoman Tori Richard said. Typically, misdemeanor cases are supported only by the arresting police agency’s work.

Rackauckas said he hopes to drop in to other branch courts throughout the year.

“I don’t think I’ll do it too often, but these are the kinds of things I can learn only by being here and doing the job,” he said.

Holmes, though, has a suggestion for the next visit:

“Maybe he and I can arrange to do the next one together so he won’t pick on my young deputies.”