Todd Casella, Yates County District Attorney, has been named Prosecutor of the Year by the New York Prosecutor’s Training Institute.
He was nominated by retired Ontario County District Attorney Mike Tantillo, who said he deserved the award because of his dedication to a specific crime when a 16-month-old child was murdered in Yates County 18 years ago. After multiple District Attorneys felt there was not evidence to support charges, Casella devoted time to DNA analysis and other methods, eventually obtaining a murder indictment against the mother. He has been deeply involved with the trial.
While Casella is in his first term as DA, he has already been successful publishing multiple articles for Empire State Prosecutor, lecturing at many NYPTI conferences, and trains many area prosecutors, paralegals, and secretaries in how to comply with N.Y. State’s demanding new discovery requirements.
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