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JUD Committee Hearing Transcript for 03/10/2021

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1 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. CHAIRPERSONS: Senator Gary Winfield, Representative Steve Stafstrom SENATORS: Kasser, Anwar, Champagne, Flexer, Haskell, Lesser, Sampson REPRESENTATIVES: Blumenthal, Fishbein, Callahan, Conley, Currey, Dillon, Doucette, Dubitsky, Fiorello, Fox, Gilchrest, Godfrey, Harding, Howard, Labriola, Luxenberg, O'Dea, Palm, Pavalock‐D'Amato, Porter, Quinn, Rebimbas, Riley, Simms, Veach, Young REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Alright, good morning everyone, I would like to call to order the Judiciary Committee Public Hearing for March 10 2021. By way of introduction, we have an aggressive agenda today. And we have a lot of interest in it. We have a hundred people signed up to testify today. So, I will again ask for Members to be as concise with the questioning as it's practicable, so that we can get to all the members of the public who want to testify at some reasonable hour of the evening. With that, any remarks from my Co-Chair or Ranking Members? SENATOR WINFIELD (10TH): No. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): No, good morning. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): All right. If not, then we will start with Chief State's Attorney Colangelo. Richard Colangelo, good to see you. RICHARD COLANGELO: Thank you, sir. Good to see you. Senator Winfield, Representative Stafstrom, Ranking Members Kissel and Representative Fishbein and the 2 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. Members of the Judiciary Committee. Thank you for allowing me to address you this morning. The Division of Criminal Justice submitted testimony on House Bill 6594, Senate Bill 978, Senate Bill 1018 and Senate Bill 1019. I'd like to focus my testimony today on House Bill 6594 and Senate Bill 1018. But I can answer any questions you may have on the other pieces of legislation. House Bill 6594 is a result of cooperation and collaboration by the Division of Criminal Justice and the Office of Chief Public Defender. I'd like to thank them for their willingness to listen to our issues and the things that we discussed with them, and as we did with them on the issues that they brought to the table. The Judicial Department, Sentencing Commission, the Attorney General's office and the Board of Pardons and Paroles were also involved in those discussions. So, I urge the Division of Criminal Justice supports all the Sections of this Bill and urges a Joint Favorable Report from this Committee. Senate Bill 1018, AN ACT CONCERNING PROSECUTORIAL ACCOUNTABILITY. That's where I'd like to focus the majority of my testimony. I had the opportunity to discuss this proposal with the advocates that supported the Bill and asked them one question that still has not been answered. What is the issue or issues that we're looking to fix with this type of legislation? As you all know, in 2019, this Body unanimously passed the Prosecutorial Transparency Bill, which the Division supported. We moved heaven and earth to get our case management system up and running, and everyone trained by January 1st. And I'm happy to report that as of January 1st, for the first time in the history of the Division, we are capturing data of what 3 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. prosecutors do live throughout the cases that we're handling day-to–day in the system. This data can be used to inform us what issues need to be addressed. But as I said, we just started capturing it at the beginning of this year. I think a lot of the portions of this Bill might be premature and those are the things that I would like to talk about today. Senate Bill 1018 as Sections addressing policies, training, performance, appraisals in the terms of state's attorneys. All of these sections are going to change the criminal justice system as we know it. Policies, it seems to be that they're looking to legislate prosecutors out of our discretion. There's really no one size fits all criminal justice system. Someone committing an offense in Tolland might be treated differently than the same person committing that same type of offense in Stamford or Norwalk based on the needs of the community. The issues that state's attorney particularly is trying to address are the particular facts about that particular case. When you look at the training portion of the Bill, I'm happy to report that Division of Criminal Justice wasn't standing by when we were looking at implicit bias training. We had two years ago, probably three years ago now, Chief Justice, Robinson, and Justice Kahn present implicit bias training to all of our prosecutors. And we have training set up to do implicit bias training for every jurisdiction as soon as we are safely able to get there. Performance appraisals, it looks like they're looking to hold state's attorneys accountable for things that we have no control over. Like the number of diversionary programs that are granted on our jurisdiction and the number of people that successfully complete those programs. 4 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. Lastly, as far as terms go, as you know the Division was set up by constitutional amendment and to insulate prosecutors from politics. Eight year terms were there to outlast the sitting Governor, so that the Governor couldn't stack the Commission to maybe not reappoint a prosecutor, and we need that time to be able to address the needs and assess what our jurisdictions would like us to do. Lastly, I just like to highlight some of the things that Division has been doing -- Yes sir. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Chief State's Attorney, Colangelo, we're past the three minutes. I gave you a little bit of leeway, but I know there's going to be some questions for you, and I know -- RICHARD COLANGELO: Absolutely. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): You submitted written testimony as well. Representative Fishbein. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Attorney Colangelo. Were there any other points in your introductory remarks that you wanted to make that are not addressed in your written testimony? because we do all have that and I just wanted to get that out. RICHARD COLANGELO: No, sir. The last thing that I wanted to highlight was just the policies and procedures that we put in place. We're not sitting idly by ESI. We're looking to expand that. I know that you, all of the Members know what that is. The fact that we are proposing a conviction integrity unit. And lastly, you know, we heard loud and clear the advocates and the legislature with respect to state's attorneys not being evaluated. But for that, you know, during that eight year term, so the state's attorneys, we established a policy to allow for a 360 degree evaluation process of each state's attorney every two years. It'll be done by a panel, 5 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. including the Chief State's Attorney, the Deputy Chief for Administration and another sitting of state's attorney, and include contact their conversations with employees, judicial branch members, law enforcement advocates, defense attorneys, public defenders and like. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): I thank you for that. I want to bring you into 1018 and specifically -- Do you have the Bill in front of you? RICHARD COLANGELO: Yes, sir. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay. Thank you. Lines 174 through 175 and that says uniform prosecutorial ethics standards in addition to the ethical standards pertaining to all attorneys. Now, what does that propose within the context of this Bill? To have a new set of rules? RICHARD COLANGELO: I think so, sir. We do have -- the practice book does have particular sections that are applicable to prosecutors. We do have ethics -- ethics policy and ethical guidelines that we established in the Division that are also in place. I don't know if it's in addition to those or trying to establish a new set of rules, I'm not sure. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Okay. So, because all lawyers have a set of ethics that they're supposed to abide by. My takeaway, please correct me if I'm wrong, from this is that there would be different or additional ethics standards that would fall upon prosecutors. Is that what this contemplates? RICHARD COLANGELO: It seems to me, yes sir. And there're already standards for us along those lines in the practice book on top of the rules that lawyers have to follow. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): And is there any part of this Bill or anything that's before us that would have 6 MARCH 10, 2021 rr/jb/ib/mi JUDICIARY COMMITTEE 10:00 A.M. the same sort of standards for defense attorneys or public defenders? RICHARD COLANGELO: No, sir. Not that I've seen. REP. FISHBEIN (90TH): Now in line 176, it has to do with employing a grand jury system in Connecticut, which is my understanding we don't have for state cases. RICHARD COLANGELO: We do in a limited access. It's -- if we want to impanel a grand jury in Connecticut, we have to apply to a three judge panel. We have to show that we've exhausted all of our investigative means that we have, and that there are individuals out there that have information, but they're not forthcoming with it. We do have the ability to do that, but it is very limited and it's strictly controlled.
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