Updated 01/30/2013 08:12 PM
Orange County DA to retire at end of his term
After decades of service in Orange County, District Attorney Frank Phillips has announced he will be retiring at the end of the year when his term is up. Our Eva McKend has more on the DA's service and what local leaders have to say about his legacy.
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ORANGE COUNTY, N.Y. -- Frank Phillips has served as District Attorney since 1986, making him the longest serving DA in Orange County modern history. But after seven elections, he will not seek re-election this year. He says it has been a good run and that he has accomplished his goals.
"I had a couple of goals when I announced I was running for office at the ripe old age of 35 and those goals were to establish here in Orange County, for the benefit of all of our people, a professional District Attorney’s office that was not plagued by staff turnover and that attracted and retained some of the best and brightest people that we possibly could," Phillips said.
So who will be his successor? The DA didn't drop any hints at who he'd like his replacement be. But Phillips says he knows the qualities that make a good prosecutor.
Phillips said, “Nominate somebody with credentials, somebody that most importantly has integrity and will not treat this office as a patronage mill to hand out jobs to party faithful.”
“It's going to be tough to fill his shoes, but there's a lot of other attorneys out there that I imagine are interested, but you need somebody with integrity, you need somebody with credibility and Frank had all those,” said Orange County Sheriff Carl DuBois.
Phillips says he hopes his fellow prosecutors spend their careers working as long as he did for the office, an office that is responsible for prosecuting more than 20,000 criminal cases each year.
Phillips speaks
Below is what Phillips had to say in his announcement on Wednesday. (approx. 15 mins)
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