Robert D. Hicks left his post as Gloucester Commonwealth’s Attorney on Jan. 1 after 17 years as the chief county prosecutor. He is returning to private practice, taking with him administrative assistant Dinah Carver who has spent twice Hicks’s tenure in the Gloucester CA’s office. The two recently reflected on their experiences in the local criminal justice system.

Hicks and assistant prosecutor Joy Long were both part-time employees when Hicks was first elected commonwealth’s attorney in 1994. When he left, he was assisted by three full-time and one part-time prosecutor. "My own case load didn’t really change, but now there’s 4½ lawyers’ worth of cases," Hicks said.

"Most of it is a function of population increase. We’re a lot less rural than we used to be. There’s always been the usual mix of burglaries. Now there are more businesses to steal and embezzle from. Then there’s the drug trade and everything that goes with that. But the murder rate has not been affected. We are seeing more robberies and more armed robberies," said Hicks.

Hicks has also seen the drug trade shift. "We started getting crack cocaine in the mid 1990s and it became prevalent. Now we’re seeing a resurgence in heroin, which had kind of disappeared 15 years ago. We’re also seeing the new synthetic drugs, synthetic marijuana or ‘spice,’ and bath salts."

The population increase has also multiplied the number of domestic violence and traffic crime cases the CA’s office handles. Hicks said the office handles about 250 domestic violence cases a year, and about the same number of DUI cases.

"The domestic violence has always been out there but now it’s a more front burner crime. There’s more awareness and more support for victims. With the DUIs, there’s more people on the road and the sheriff’s office and state police have gotten better at detecting them."

Computers were new when Hicks took office in 1994, and they brought new crimes with them. "Child pornography and internet predators, internet scams, that’s all new since I started. Computers can also make it easier for embezzlers to cover their tracks," Hicks said.

Technology has also been a plus for the CA’s office. "We are able to use more visual presentation in the courtroom. When jurors see something on a big screen they put more credibility in it than if you were passing around an 8×10. There’s also computerized legal research now. You can have a whole law library on two discs. I can do in a half hour what used to take the better part of a day over at the William and Mary law school."

"DNA also wasn’t around when I started and there are cell phone technologies that are useful now," Hicks added. Carver said video cameras in police cars have also helped support DUI convictions.

While cases have increased, the available time in court to try them has narrowed. "We used to have 48 or 50 court days per year. Now it’s more like 36 to 40," Carver estimated.

"A judge shortage has been a problem here, so there gets to be a bottleneck," Hicks explained. "We’re still down to one or two judge days a week. If we had more judge time, we could try more cases and not have so many plea agreements. But if someone is waiting in jail, you have to try the case within five months. The limited days prevents the prosecution from asking for a jury as often as I’d like to."

But Hicks said juries have also become harder to convince, partially due to television. "They see it all wrapped up in an hour on TV and that’s what they expect," Carver explained. "It’s what prosecutors call the ‘CSI effect,’" Hicks added. He also noted that only the marginal cases are actually tried. When they do convict, Hicks said juries are tough sentencers. "When it comes to homicides, I always try to let a jury decide what to do with those."

Over the years cases seem to all run together, Carver said, but some still stand out for Hicks. The recent case in which a local couple is accused of caging and starving their young daughter is one of the most heinous Hicks has seen. "The pictures just make you cry," he said of evidence in that case, which has not yet been tried.

Hicks also recalled the 1994 case in which Thomas Pavlick was charged with murdering his infant son by shaking him. "It was the first murder conviction in the state for a shaken-baby case. The others, up until then, were manslaughter cases." Pavlick was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 20 years.

His "best sentence" case, Hicks said, was in a 1998 home invasion rape and robbery. Jeffrey Andrew Crawford received two life terms plus 60 years for those crimes. "We had a suspect but not a whole lot to go with it. Crawford disappeared but showed up in a Washington, D.C., jail two years later. DNA was being used then, and we sent an officer to get Crawford’s DNA."

Among cases with unusual defense arguments, Hicks said the 2000 case of James Thomas Casey comes to mind. Casey shot and killed Joseph Phillips, a maintenance man who showed up at his apartment to do some work. Casey told investigators the man had been stealing coins from him. Casey’s attorney argued his client was not sane at the time due to the effects of a long untreated venereal disease that made him paranoid. Casey received a 20-year sentence for murder.

One of the oddest cases, also with an insanity defense, occurred in 2002. Todd Field was driving along a Gloucester back road when a woman began to follow him and then ram his car from behind. Field drove to his home with the woman, Wilma Rivera, still pursuing him. When Field arrived home and tried to run to his house, Rivera fatally ran him over in his yard. Rivera, who had a long history of mental illness, was charged with second-degree murder but was acquitted and later committed to a mental hospital.

Now it will once again be Hicks who is the defender. "I’ll have to remember what side of the courtroom to sit on," he joked. "I enjoyed my previous time in private practice. I really think all CAs should have some experience as a defense lawyer. Most do not, but I think it’s beneficial. Now I’m hoping the reverse is true."

"It’s been incredibly rewarding," Hicks said of working for the commonwealth, with Carver in agreement. "Now we hope the next chapter will be equally so," she added. Hicks has secured office space on Main Street in Gloucester and hopes to open his private general practice later this month.