News

Middlesex DA Gerry Leone will not seek reelection

(FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced on Thursday that he will not seek reelection in 2014 to a third term as Middlesex District Attorney.

Leone made the announcement to his staff at an office-wide annual awards and recognition ceremony.

"For the last 30 years, the last three Middlesex District Attorneys have not run for reelection to a third term as Middlesex District Attorney. Like my predecessors, I too will not run for reelection to a third term as Middlesex District Attorney in 2014," Leone stated.

FULL TEXT: Middlesex DA Gerry Leone's remarks to staff

However, unlike his predecessors, Leone says he has no plans to run for another elective office.

"Other than a husband and father, I am not yet sure what that will be when I am no longer a District Attorney."

Leone decided to make the announcement in order to give enough time for potential candidates to surface saying, ""I want that field of potential successors to be as rich and deep as the job deserves."

In his remarks to his staff, Leone called his job the absolute best job in government and public service in Massachusetts, and he promised that he will enjoy the job he loves until the day he leaves office.

Leone, a Democrat, was elected district attorney of Middlesex County, a populous suburban area north and west of Boston that includes Cambridge, in 2006, and re-elected without opposition in 2011. His tenure has included prosecutions of the drug robbery-slaying of a nonstudent in a Harvard University dorm in 2010 and the 2011 manslaughter trial of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan's brother for their father's death.

As first assistant and anti-terrorism coordinator for the state U.S. attorney's office from 2001 to 2005, Leone helped investigate the 9/11 terror attacks launched from Boston and led the prosecution of Reid, who unsuccessfully tried to blow a trans-Atlantic flight out of the sky using elaborately concealed explosives.

He was chief of the state attorney general's criminal bureau from 1999 to 2001 and has been an assistant district attorney in Middlesex and Suffolk counties. He was lead prosecutor in the 1997 trial of British au pair Louise Woodward, a teenager convicted of killing an 8-month-old in her care in Newton.

Leone's announcement comes at a time of a shifting political environment in Massachusetts. The nomination of Sen. John Kerry as secretary of state has led to speculation about a special election to fill Kerry's seat. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey is the only announced Democratic candidate, but two other Boston-area congressmen, Stephen Lynch and Michael Capuano, are possible contenders. Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who lost in November to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, is weighing a run on the Republican side.


FULL TEXT: Middlesex DA Gerry Leone's remarks to staff

The Associated Press contributed to this report.