The towns of Greenfield, Dublin, New Ipswich, and Fitzwilliam have signed a contract to share the services of a regional prosecutor who will work from an office at the Greenfield Police Station.
The prosecutor position is currently filled by Angelika Wilkerson-Martin, who will be assisted by Linda Paquette.
“We have worked with this prosecutor group since July and it has been very helpful to have a board-certified prosecutor right upstairs,” said Greenfield Chief of Police Frank Shea. “We feel this is a very good service to continue.”
Shea said while Greenfield’s location is not convenient to the district courthouse in Jaffrey, the town’s newly renovated police station has plenty of office space.
“It worked out great because have the space at our station for her to operate,” he said.
At an informational budget meeting hosted by Greenfield’s Select Board on Wednesday night, Shea reported that each town will pay a percentage of the prosecutor’s salary, with the percentage partly based on the prosecution caseload for each town.
“New Ipswich pays the most, as they have the largest population,” Shea said. “The arrangement with the prosecutor is a similar agreement to the contract with our ambulance hosting program, with each town paying a percentage.”
Greenfield’s share of the contract will be a new line item in the town budget
Shea said cases in Greenfield, as with most small towns in the region, are mostly misdemeanors and minor infractions, but there are also a number of more serious crimes each year.
“We do have a certain number of felony crimes that get sent up,” he said.
Greenfield began looking for a new solution for prosecution services after Police Chief Brian Giamarino, who served as the town’s prosecutor for many years, retired in July. According to Shea, an agreement to have a prosecution group with Hancock had “fallen apart” due to changes at the Hancock Police Department.
“We were not looking to continue the arrangement with Hancock. We started looking around at other towns,” Shea said.
According to Shea, the new arrangement will save Greenfield money.
“Our share is $31,000 per year, and we were paying Hancock $43,500 per year,” he said.
Shea said the previous commonly used model of using police officers as prosecutors in smaller towns is “no longer a great model” due to frequent changes in the legal system.
“It’s just constantly changing. We train up something, and by the time we learn it, it has changed again,” he said.
Greenfield will be responsible for administrating payroll and the contract with the other three towns.
The contract for the new prosecutor was reviewed by town counsel for each of the four towns and approved by the state Attorney General’s Office.