CLARION, Pa. (EYT) – Clarion County District Attorney Drew Welsh grew up in Michigan and dreamed of becoming a psychologist or filmmaker.

(PICTURED ABOVE: Clarion County DA Drew Welsh and Rotarian Trueman Mills.)

“Plans change in life,” Welsh told members of the Clarion Rotary Club on Monday.

Things like going to Law School at the University of Pittsburgh and then eventually becoming Clarion County Assistant District Attorney serving for nine years before being elected District Attorney last November.

“I found one of the most significant challenges is improving the communication between all the different agencies that are working really towards the same goal, but you have law enforcement, you have children and youth services, you have to work with hospitals. You have other area agencies on aging, drug and alcohol, mental health. Agencies are working together and trying to reduce crime in some ways and provide services to people who have committed crimes or victims of crime. It’s facilitating all of that and seek to move forward.

“When I look at the skills required for someone to work in the district attorney’s office. It requires two things: One is you have to know the law. You have to have the ability to research the law, understand what the law says, case law, and things of that nature. You also have to have common sense and the ability to present that to other people. You have a lot of knowledgeable people, can dig into all of the research on everything, and then you have people that can be very charismatic public speakers and can connect to people. Ultimately it comes down to is if you have a case that you have to present to a jury. You have to show all of that information to a jury and what is going to appeal to them, because you can think of any case.

“I’m sure as you can imagine from the time it comes into the office, you have a fantastic amount of information that will come in, and you will have months upon months that the case is processing through the justice system, and there were interviews with these people. You will have all of that information and be able to present that to 12 strangers who know nothing about any of the cases and convince them beyond a reasonable doubt something happened.

“You need to be able to synthesize that information and present it in a way that people are going to clearly understand what happened and ultimately side with what you’re showing is being the truth of what happened. You also have someone on the other side who has their sole job on the other side is to convince the jury there’s reasonable doubt.”

DA Welsh and Rotarian Bill Hearst.

Challenges

“Nobody is unfamiliar with the problems that drugs are causing to the community that you see out there. I would say I don’t have exact statistics on there, but somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of the crime that we see in our community is in some way related to drugs or alcohol.

“That doesn’t mean this is only drug dealing going on the community, but when there is an assault that happens, whether it’s at the bar or whether it’s at the house you’re going to, I would bet money most of the time there’s going to have been drugs or alcohol involved in there. You have individuals committing offenses or selling drugs, but you also have retail thefts, thefts, and burglaries that are directly related to drugs or alcohol.

“The other big challenge that I see in the community that all the time is the advancements in technology and social media, and communicating through different things like Snapchat, text messaging things are going on that. I like to think of myself as a younger guy, but with a lot of the stuff happens, I feel very old.

“I also teach a college class, and when I mention something (about) the internet and social media and they’ll tell me that’s just what old people use. Don’t worry about Facebook; that’s what their grandparents live.”

Community Involvement is essential

“The District Attorney’s office is involved and listens to the community and people who are affected by crime. It’s very easy to work inside a bubble in the district attorney’s office, and you’re sitting there talking to a defense attorney.

“It’s very easy to lose focus on why you’re there as a district attorney. You are really there to be involved in prosecuting the case all the way, but also represent the community and the people of Clarion County.”