ELIZABETHTOWN — The current Essex County District Attorney, Kristy Sprague, and a Lake Placid lawyer, Bryan Liam Kennelly, will face off Tuesday, Nov. 5 for the office of Essex County Judge.
The new judge will preside over criminal, surrogate and family courts in Essex County for a 10-year term.
County Judge Richard Meyer is retiring at the end of the year and did not seek reelection.
Judicial restrictions bar the candidates from commenting on their philosophies and intentions if elected, they said, but both provided a synopsis of their backgrounds and experience.
Kennelly
Bryan Liam Kennelly said he has the proven experience in all the matters the Essex County Court judge presides over on a daily basis. The only candidate that has represented over a thousand clients in family, criminal and surrogate matters in the North Country, and has an extensive background in complex civil litigation, he said.
Kennelly resides in Lake Placid with his wife and daughter. Currently, and for over a decade, he has owned and managed his law firm in Lake Placid.
He graduated from the Lake Placid Central School in 2000, SUNY New Paltz in 2004 and Vermont Law School in 2010. He is a former Lake Placid Central School District Board member.
He is currently town attorney for the Town of Keene.
Sprague
Kristy Sprague said she has been a dedicated public servant for 26 years and the elected Essex County District Attorney for 14 years, since 2010.
She has proven experience handling thousands of cases in justice courts, County Court, Supreme Court and Grand Jury, she said.
Sprague specialized training in handling child sexual abuse and domestic violence cases and established and brought to Essex County the North Country’s first Child Advocacy Center program to service child sexual abuse victims and non-offending family members.
She said she started the first Essex County Multidisciplinary Team to handle child sexual abuse investigations and prosecutions and was awarded the Outstanding Advocate for Child Victims in 2015, by the Essex County Multidisciplinary Team.
She has decades of assessing evidence and facts and making fair and just charging decisions and 26 years of presenting testimonial and physical evidence in hearings, Grand Jury and trials for criminal offenses to include murder, serious assaults, drug offenses, DWIs, child abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence offenses, family offenses, weapon offenses, theft crimes and animal cruelty offenses, she said.
She has Appellate Court experience drafting and arguing appeals from County Court. Sprague established Essex County’s first DWI Victim Impact Panel.
Sprague is a founding team member of both the Essex County Veterans Treatment Court and Essex County Mental Health Treatment Court. She started an innovative county traffic reduction and diversion program for traffic violations.
She said she speaks frequently at schools and community forums and provides training for law enforcement and other governmental agencies at local police academies and provides internships and shadowing opportunities for high school, college and law school students.
Sprague has been married to Steve Trow for 24 years and both are Moriah natives. They have two college age children, Hayden, 21, and Jayde, 19, and their beagle, Shayla.