Rollins and Turco have ‘constructive meeting’ after memo spat

A week after state Public Safety Secretary Thomas Turco sent Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins a letter raising concerns with her prosecutorial tactics, the pair had a “positive and productive” meeting, according to a spokesman for the DA.

The Turco letter to the first-year district attorney, which was also released to the public, conveyed his concerns about her reforms in the way her office prosecutes drug crimes and a host of misdemeanors. The missive sparked days of biting pushback from Rollins and her supporters. The two officials and their senior staffs finally sat down last Thursday to hash things out face-to-face, with Turco and his personnel going to Rollins’s downtown Boston office.

The parties “identified issues of mutual concern and ideas for possible collaboration as two public safety professionals deeply committed to the residents of Suffolk County and the Commonwealth,” said Jake Wark, from the district attorney’s office.

A spokesman for Turco echoed Wark’s description of Thursday’s meeting, telling the News Service in an email: “Earlier today, Sec. Turco had a constructive meeting with District Attorney Rollins to discuss opportunities to work together on important criminal justice policy issues and advance our common goal of protecting the public safety of the people of Suffolk County.”

Neither Rollins’ nor Turco’s offices would elaborate on the specifics of what was discussed or ways the two office might be thinking about working together.

Rollins also met last Wednesday with Attorney General Maura Healey after Healey said this week that while she hadn’t read Rollins’ policy memo she knew enough to know that the district attorney was “doing what she promised to do” on the campaign trail last fall.

Wark described the meeting with Healey as “similarly fruitful. The DA is looking forward to a continued partnership with the AG on the important policy matters that concern them both,” he said.


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