Healey Nominates Prosecutor From Chelmsford To Serve On District Court
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, OCT. 30, 2024…..Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday tapped a lead prosecutor of the Tiny Rascals Gang for a District Court judgeship, while the Governor’s Council confirmed her pick to lead the Appeals Court on a 7-0 vote.
Healey nominated Cara Lynn Krysil Tirella, of Chelmsford, to fill one of the vacant slots on the District Court bench.
A 2000 graduate of Western New England College School of Law, Krysil Tirella has spent the past nine years as counsel for the New England division of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration.
Her career began as a Middlesex County prosecutor under District Attorney Martha Coakley, and she rose to chief of the Lowell Superior Court Region under DA Gerard Leone.
Krysil Tirella served simultaneously as a special assistant U.S. attorney from 2007 to 2011, according to her resume, and was a lead prosecutor on the investigation and prosecution of the Tiny Rascals Gang, a Cambodian-American gang that has operated in Massachusetts.
She followed Coakley to the Attorney General’s Office where she spent two years as chief of the Enterprise and Major Crimes Division until 2015.
“Cara’s understanding of the law and her passion for justice will make her a great addition to our Court system, and I look forward to working with the Governor’s Council to confirm her nomination,” Healey said in a statement.
The council on Wednesday unanimously approved Judge Amy Blake as the next chief justice of the Appeals Court. The first woman to hold the job, Blake was appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick to the Probate Court in 2008, and elevated to the Appeals Court in 2014.
“What I see in Amy is her caring for people and including people,” Councilor Marilyn Petitto Devaney said before voting for Blake on Wednesday.
The council started its day hearing from Land Court nominee Lauren Reznick, and two of her boosters: attorney Jamie Langowski and Land Court Judge Diane Rubin.
Rubin, an appointee of Gov. Charlie Baker, told councilors that Reznick possessed “excellent legal skills” and had a “real commitment to the people that come before the court.”
Reznick has taken the lead on updating and building out materials on the Land Court’s website, Rubin said, which can aid people including self-represented litigants navigating something like a tax lien or a foreclosure.
“She does a really good job taking very complicated things and making them simple,” the judge said, citing that work as evidence of Reznick’s “commitment to access to justice.”
On Wednesday afternoon, councilors were due to hear from supporters of District Court nominee Stuart Hurowitz, supervising attorney of the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Worcester office, and Appeals Court candidate Chauncey Brainerd Wood, a criminal defense lawyer at Wood & Nathanson LLP.
Worcester County prosecutor Lisa Casella was registered to testify in support of Hurowitz. On deck to speak in favor of Wood’s nomination were retired Supreme Judicial Court Justice David Lowy and attorney Meredith Shih, a special assistant to SJC Chief Justice Kimberly Budd.
Devaney scheduled a public interview with Krysil Tirella for Nov. 20 at 1 p.m., and Councilor Terrence Kennedy lined up a hearing for 10:30 a.m. the same day on Appellate Tax Board nominee Steven Elliott, whom Healey nominated on Oct. 24.
Devaney also rescheduled an interview that had originally been set for Nov. 6, the day after Election Day, and alleged that her colleagues had not been planning to show up to hear from District Court nominee Mary “Polly” Phillips.
“And I guess the councilors are going to be celebrating the day after the election,” Devaney said, forecasting “empty chairs” for the panel’s meeting that day. It’s the first general election without Devaney on the ballot since before 1998.
The Phillips hearing is now set for Nov. 13 at 10:30 a.m.
