In the wake of years of scandal, legal malfeasance and ongoing public controversy, Hancock County District Attorney Carletta Bassano has decided not to run for re-election when her term expires.
So far two ADAs from Bassano’s corruption-addled office have thrown their names into the hat to take her place. The net result of either of them being elected will mean that the entire operation, including the disgraced Mary Kellett whose license to practice law was suspended for several items of malfeasance, will remain intact doing business as usual.
One of those two candidates is ADA Paul Cavanaugh, who was captured recently on videotape politicking with a group of local Republican women. He was being asked questions about the systematic abuses of power that have been exposed in the Hancock County office over the past several years.
Not only did Cavanaugh deny that he believes any such systemic problems exist, he goes on to put on a convincing display of the problem itself by minimizing and misleading the people he is addressing about the conduct of Mary Kellett, and by making highly inappropriate public statements about an active case involving Vladek Filler, literally trying Filler on his own as he postures for the camera and the political group.
The conduct in this video is worthy of bar complaint on its own, even as Cavanaugh denies that there is a culture of corruption in the office he now wants to head.
A side note for you Mr. Cavanaugh. Two, actually. One, you lied to your audience (quelle surprise) when you characterized the MHRM as a group that sees women as a problem. The problems, just like the ones you lied about in this video, are systemic. They involved men like you every bit as much as they do women like Kellett. No one in this movement ever claimed that corruption had a gender. It is men like you that shape our beliefs.
Two, take a look at the faces on the people in this video. You know, the ones listening to you talk. Do they look like they are buying your bullshit? As a prosecutor you should be a good study in body language and other forms of non-verbal communication. What does it tell you?
Do you think this is the last time you are going to have to face questions about the corrupt railroad your team has been running disguised as a prosecutor’s office?
And one last question. Did you really think that concerned citizens were just going to move on to something else after your buddy Kellett got a slap on the wrist for making a mockery of the criminal justice system at the expense of Vladek Filler and countless other men?
Your office needs new leadership, Paul; someone with a very large broom in their hand with a mind to use it on you and everyone else currently in that office. It is the only way to turn your den of thieves into an instrument of the law that commands respect.
Video and background for this story courtesy of Integrity 4Maine.
What an appropriate name.
