HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Veteran prosecutor Patrick Griffin was named Connecticut’s new chief state’s legal professional Thursday and vowed to restore the workplace’s repute after an investigation questioned his predecessor’s integrity.

Griffin, a state prosecutor for 27 years together with the previous six as the highest state’s legal professional for the New Haven space, was appointed by a unanimous vote of the Felony Justice Fee. The panel interviewed Griffin and Hartford State’s Legal professional Sharmese Walcott for the publish earlier Thursday.

“I don’t assume that there’s any query that the repute of the Division of Felony Justice has been tarnished,” Griffin informed the fee. “I feel that’s affected the morale of your entire division. … We’ve bought to start to consider new methods to interact the group. We have now to assume outdoors the field. However I do assume that the one solution to start to fix and enhance our reputations is thru group engagement.”

The chief state’s legal professional is Connecticut’s high state prosecutor and leads the Division of Felony Justice, which oversees the state’s legal professional’s places of work for the state’s 13 judicial districts.

Former Chief State’s Legal professional Richard Colangelo Jr. determined to retire March 31 after two years on the job because the Felony Justice Fee thought of whether or not to carry termination hearings.

An unbiased investigation ordered by Gov. Ned Lamont questioned Colangelo’s hiring of a state finances official’s daughter to a $99,000-per-year govt assistant’s job in his workplace, whereas urgent the official for pay raises for high-ranking state’s attorneys. Colangelo denied wrongdoing and questioned lots of the investigation’s findings.

The probe, led by former U.S. Legal professional Stanley Twardy Jr., stated Colangelo, finances official Konstantinos Diamantis, and Diamantis’ daughter, Anastasia Diamantis, gave conflicting statements to investigators that “forged doubt on the integrity of the circumstances surrounding” the hiring of Anastasia Diamantis.

Colangelo and Konstantinos Diamantis denied discussing a job for Diamantis’ daughter earlier than she was employed, however emails appeared to point out in any other case, the investigation report stated. She additionally was the one particular person interviewed for the publish, the report stated.

Konstantinos Diamantis additionally denied wrongdoing. He stated that whereas he was in workplace, Colangelo by no means bought the pay raises he sought.

Konstantinos Diamantis, who was deputy secretary of the Workplace of Coverage and Administration, retired in October after being positioned on go away as Lamont ordered the investigation into his daughter’s hiring. He is also on the middle of an ongoing federal investigation into the bidding and awarding of faculty building and different tasks. State officers have obtained a grand jury subpoena for communications involving Konstantinos Diamantis, who denies doing something improper in that case.

Griffin started his profession in 1995 within the chief state’s legal professional’s workplace and served within the Waterbury Judicial District from 1996 to 2011, together with the final eight years making an attempt homicide and different critical instances. He later led a brand new state chilly case and capturing job power within the chief state’s legal professional’s workplace earlier than being named New Haven state’s legal professional in 2016.

“As state’s legal professional, I’ve at all times sought to mission a gradual, skilled demeaner, to demand rigorous adherence to the best requirements of moral {and professional} conduct, to guide by instance, set clearly outlined targets and goals, work as onerous as anybody I supervise, to be honest and neutral and above all else to hearken to the concepts and considerations of these round me,” Griffin informed the fee.

A 3rd finalist for the chief state’s legal professional’s job, retired Litchfield State’s Legal professional Daybreak Gallo, withdrew her candidacy earlier than Thursday’s fee assembly.

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