Brittany Grome Antonacci is making history as Cayuga County’s first-ever female District Attorney. Antonacci joined us on Finger Lakes Today Tuesday, and talked about running unopposed on the ballot.
“At the end of today, I will be the first female to officially be elected as the county’s top prosecutor in Cayuga County history,” Antonacci said. “I was actually put into place when the former district attorney became judge, so I’ve been acting district attorney for the past year.”
Antonacci said she has an amazing support staff of assistant district attorneys. She explained that a lot of DA’s offices around the state are having trouble retaining and recruiting prosecutors.
“I think we’re one of the only offices in the state that’s actually fully staffed when it comes to attorneys,” she added. “I hired three new prosecutors this year.”
What are the priorities and goals?
“I think with a lot of the rural counties, even the larger counties, there’s a clear drug problem,” Antonacci explained. “So what our law enforcement partners and my office has been really focusing on is combatting the drug issue. So we are taking a hard stance against those who sell drugs, and trying to help those get treatment who are users and abusers.”
Antonacci said over the past year, her first priority was making sure the office was fully staffed. She said her office has been focusing on repeat and violent offenders and making sure they’re being held accountable. “We’re making sure we indict efficiently,” Antonacci added. “Our county is one of the top counties in the 7th Judicial District with respect to efficiency. We average about six months from indictment to trial.”
What big cases is she focused on now?
“We have two homicides pending right now in Cayuga County,” Antonacci said. “We are actively prosecuting those and are in the motion stages.”
So far, Antonacci said she is most proud of one particular case.
“We were able to convict an individual for manslaughter for selling Fentanyl-laced Heroin to an individual who overdosed and died,” she said. “It’s very difficult to prove, but we were able to successfully prosecute at least one case.”
Antonacci said she’d be celebrating the historic day with her husband, Mike, and their Golden Doodle, “Moose” before hitting some election parties.
Rebecca is a veteran multimedia journalist serving as one of our core reporters in the Finger Lakes region. She is responsible for telling stories that matter to every day Upstate New Yorkers. Have a question or lead? Send it to [email protected].