May 5, 2017 by Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
Light overcomes darkness, the Forces of Good defeat the forces of evil. Well, sometimes. And this is one of those times. On April 23, I asked everyone to sign a petition informing Maine Governor Paul LePage of the serious defects in the candidacy for District Attorney of four counties of Paul Cavanaugh.
Cavanaugh has the deserved reputation of a prosecutor who, like his fellow traveler, Mary Kellett, has never seen a sexual abuse allegation he didn’t find meritorious enough to charge a man with and take to trial. Legion are those allegations that clearly should never have become formal charges, much less been pursued before a jury. Cavanaugh is one of those prosecutors for whom the canons of ethics seem to be more a vague suggestion than rules of conduct.
As such, he has no business calling the shots for all the ADA’s in four counties. So I encouraged readers to sign a petition informing Governor LePage of Cavanaugh’s problems and asking him to appoint someone else.
Well, you did and we won. I’m informed that Cavanaugh won’t get the job. That of course opens the door to him to start representing criminal defendants and, if he goes that route, maybe, just maybe, he’ll come to view the terrible power of the state with some perspective. Possibly he’ll come to understand what men who are falsely accused of sex crimes go through. He may even learn why the code of ethics for prosecutors emphasizes that, unlike other lawyers, those who work for the state must direct their actions not just toward winning cases, but doing justice.
I admit, I’ll be surprised if those things happen, but we can hope. After all, if a petition campaign can take Paul Cavanaugh out of the running for a coveted DA’s position, what else might happen?
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