Welcome to www.richmcnally.com

Thanks for your interest in my effort to continue what has been my privilege to serve as Rensselaer County District Attorney.

When I decided to seek this post a little over four years ago, my wife Karen Carlson and I thought long and hard about why we were committing the time and energy to the task.

We both had good jobs. She was and still is a Supervising Attorney in the State Education Department Office of the Professions and I was a partner in a well respected law firm in Hoosick Falls.

The challenge of running a county-wide political campaign, and if successful, re-tooling an office that had by all accounts been badly mismanaged (my predecessor did not seek re-election) were daunting. Our two daughters were 10 and 7. There would be a lot of time away from family.

We are both committed to our community. We also believe that you have to be in the game to make things work the way they are supposed to work. We took up the challenge and we were successful.

The District Attorney’s Office is perhaps the most important County Office there is. The magnitude of the impact of the office cannot be understated.

“Do the Right Thing” is the unofficial motto of the District Attorney’s Association of the State of New York. I am proud to serve on the Board of Directors of that organization and I try every minute to live by that standard.

The job is not about box scores and bluster. The job is a lawyer’s job. Follow the rule of law, seek justice for those whose lives have been disrupted by those who prey upon our children, parents, and loved ones and do justice to the worst of the worst.

The office I lead as your District Attorney has won convictions in some of the most complex criminal cases I have seen in practicing criminal law in the Capital District for over twenty years: Infant Homicides ( Adrian Thomas convicted of Murder serving 25 to life); Serial Sex Offenders (Bike Path Rapist serving 20 years plus 20 years parole); Domestic Violence Homicides (Damien Burkette serving 25 years to life for Murder) Random Gang Assaults ( Ariel Myers serving 25 years for firing a bullet into an innocent bystander disrupting a gang fight).

I was personally about to begin selecting jurors in an eight year old double homicide case where two men were accused of brutally murdering two people in Troy in 2002 when DNA matched a new suspect. There were countless hours and volumes of work put into that case. We did not rush in. I made the call to dismiss the charges against the wrongfully accused; I directed the investigation that eventually convicted Michael Mosley of the killings that had haunted the parents of two murdered children and this community for nearly a decade. Mosley is serving Life in Prison without the possibility of parole.

In the meantime I’ve led a team of dedicated attorney’s and investigators that have made the Criminal Justice System in this County work the way it is supposed to. I take pride in our work and our record is proof of our professionalism. I ask for your support and look forward to serving as your DA for the next four years.