Wednesday, Nov 4: Chris Markey

Good morning. Good morning. Historic election last night. We'll talk all about it at 508-996-0500. Many people had winners. Many people had candidates that lost. We have one of the winners sitting right here, my good friend, our district attorney elect, Chris Markey. Congratulations, Representative Markey. Congratulations on a really well-earned victory. Thank you, Chris. I appreciate it. I appreciate everyone's efforts. Thank It was a long day, and it's been a long nine months, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to do this. I think that my experiences have put me in a good position to deal with these types of criminal cases that we're going to be dealing with, you. and I think that is really what's needed. Tom has got that same type of experience where the judgment is you make those I'm not going to make those decisions all the time. I don't want to say it gets easier, but you understand the complexities of it. And those decisions, people might not understand the complexities of all these decisions that they make that just seem like, oh, well, you've got to be tough on crime. Well, that might not be the case. I always try to describe it as when you do a case, especially in the district court, not every domestic violence case is the same. The cause of it, the root cause of it. It could be infidelity. It could be finances, it could be gambling, it could be drugs and alcohol. Yeah. So it's not a one-size-fits-all, and you just want to be able to ask the right questions and get the trust of the victims and the witnesses to be able to disclose that information. And then hopefully you can... diagnose the type of case it is and say, okay, this is where we want this case to go. This type of rehab or this type of whatever it is. And I think that is where that experience comes from understanding that. And then you get the higher end cases. So complex investigations that could take multi jurisdictions, how to deal with all of that, deal with immunity issues. Deal with cooperating witnesses. Those are very, very difficult decisions. And if you don't have the experience all the time, or at least have that ability to understand and appreciate all the potential pitfalls, it can hurt a case. Chris Markey is my guest. He's currently a state representative. He just won the general election to be the district attorney of Bristol County. Chris, you have four cities. It's a total of 20 communities. Four cities that are unique and have a lot of great things, but problems. Some have problems. There's guns. There's stuff like that. What do you think about that? What do you see as some of the major issues that you'll be having to tackle? And probably the same issues that were there when you were a prosecutor before. Well, obviously, the youth violence, I'm concerned that the legislature, which I'm part of, and there's an economic development bill, and that part of that is to raise the age of juvenile court. And that's in there, and it's in the conference committee, and it's going back and forth. I have real concerns about that. Okay. Explain why that is. Over 25% of the gun cases in Bristol County are people under 21 years old, between 21. So just think of that, right? People aren't involved in the court system until they're really like 16 years old. So those five, they take 25% of all gun cases. And that's significant. You start chipping away and having the ability to have the mandatory sentences that you would have. You have an infrastructure in the juvenile court that's not designed. To handle these types of individuals, you're going to have complex legal decisions from motions to suppress and all that for judges who really don't do this on a day in, day out basis. And you're not going to have the infrastructure to have the jury trials that would be required to do all these cases. Thank I get what some of the ideas behind the emerging minds, but I just don't think that that is going to be an effective way. you To protect the communities. So having younger people with guns is a huge problem. very Some of the things that prevention programs and everyone can chuckle at that and say, oh, well, we're going to have midnight basketball. much. But to some degree, we had informal midnight basketball when we were growing up. Right. We had. Thank We had neighbors who cared about us that told, you know, I was speaking during the campaign, I was speaking with someone, I was like, back when we were kids, like, my friend's mother would yell at me if I did something. It wasn't anything bad. It's just, okay, well, ----, Mrs. Arvinetti yelled at me. you. I got to make sure that I shape up, you know, and I was embarrassed that I was. She's passed on. She was an awesome person. Her kids are still around. They're awesome. But the idea being that you would embarrass yourself, and then you embarrass your parents. So that type of thing. But working with some of the things like Robbie Mendes at the Boys and Girls Club and Bill Kiley and Fall River at the Boys and Girls Club and the Y, I think that those things we need to do. Um, but we also need to find ways to, so to keep them busy, but also we need to find ways to make sure that they're held accountable. And there's a lots of things that we can do. I'm a believer that sports is the greatest thing that you can learn discipline on and you can learn leadership skills. You learn. Your strengths, you learn your weaknesses, you learn your friends' strengths, their weaknesses, and you have a common goal. I mean, if you have all that stuff in regular life, it can carry over to the business world. It carries over to everywhere. So my hope is that we can find things where people who are young, who are kind of going off track, we find ways to find them to have that discipline, to find ways to do teamwork and understand and appreciate each other. And that not everything results, not every disagreement. Thank Requires you to go find a gun and then go shoot somebody. My guest is Chris Markey, our next district attorney. Chris, you ran a really bipartisan you campaign. It was a family affair. Your sisters, your brother, heavily involved, your friends all heavily involved in the campaign. very One of the things you said on the campaign trail used in some advertising was, you wanna be the district attorney, much. that if your kid was in trouble or if a member of your family was a victim of crime, you'd want me to be the DA. Talk about Sure. I mean, I think that the the the most difficult part of being a prosecutor is you're the gatekeeper for the system and you need people who can make those judgment calls before a process even starts, because just charging someone can be devastating to somebody. So you want to make sure that you're doing the right thing for the right reasons. And for me... I think that having someone with the experience of, you know, I am in a unique position and I think I'm maybe one, maybe Tom had more experience because he was the first assistant before he was appointed. But I don't think there's been anyone elected who's had the experiences that I've had that I think put me in a better position to make those decisions. Thank you. And you've got to be fair minded. And I look at it as the best thing to do. Is to size up every case individually. Try to teach the young assistant DAs that that's how you do it. And the young assistant DAs can be for everything from the triage nurse to the ER nurse to the NP to the doctor in the ER. They have to do all those things. So they have to triage a case quickly. They've got to diagnose it. What's the best thing? They've got to have the skills. We're going to take a break because the buzzer guy is here. So we're going to take a break. We'll be right back more with Chris Markey, our next district attorney. We'll be right back. Think back to the last time you were in nature. What comes to mind? Hiking through a lush forest? Floating on a lazy river? Or perhaps watching a vibrant sunset on a beach full of glistening plastic bottles and food wrappers? Unfortunately, this isn't a joke. Here in the US, we generate the most plastic waste in the world, with 70% of it ending up in landfills. And by the time you're done listening to this ad, more than a dump truck's worth of plastic will have made it into the ocean. Plastic has become a useful part of our everyday lives, but it's polluting the air, water, and soil that all life needs to survive. This is a human problem that can be solved with human action, but it's going to take all of us, from individuals, to businesses, to governments, and everyone in between, help create a cleaner future for both people and nature. Visit WWF.Earth.plastics. Back to Chris McCarthy and South Coast now on WBSM, call 508-996-0500. We're back with the District Attorney-elect, Representative Chris Markey. Like I said, the campaign was a family affair. Thank you for being there. You had some interesting moments on the campaign. Yeah, I mean, I chuckle about people saying, no, it's the machine. It's literally probably my longest friend from my neighborhood, Chris O'Neill, my brother and my sister. A lawyer buddy of mine from Fall River, who was an assistant DA with me, who we've always maintained friendships. We went to career prosecutor school back in 1998 together. And then a series of young men and women who were just tremendous energy and also have incredible intellect and incredible writing ability and can put thoughts together very quickly. So I was really impressed. I mean, the thing about yesterday was... This is the buildup of it, right? You run a good campaign. I think it's the momentum continues. So in the last week, I spent more time at the headquarters and people, random people who I didn't even know would come in and ask for a sign, say, how can I help take some literature to drop off in their neighborhood? One guy came, grabbed a bunch of stuff, came back about an hour and a half, two hours later with his mother, and she grabbed a bunch of stuff. And that is where, you know, you're doing well. And then so my sister and my brother and a buddy of mine who's a neighbor ran kind of the Election Day operations. We had someone at every polling place from 6 to 8 p.m. at night and from 7 to 9 in the morning. That's an enormous operation. And then in. And more than a handful, like 50%, we had people there all day. So, like, that's a bunch of volunteers. That's a bunch of phone calls. It's using technology. We had three people at headquarters yesterday as, like, air traffic controllers. The one who, you know, I'm most impressed with was my niece. My sister took a digger from a crazy costume on Halloween, hit her head, and so she ended up eventually, after Sunday and Monday working, going into the hospital for observations for the last 24 hours. Hopefully, she'll be getting out today, but her daughter picked it up, and it's unbelievable. Unbelievable. I mean, I said it last night that my sister's kind of like the Drew Bledsoe, but Elizabeth Golden is... The Tom Brady who came up and just, it was unbelievable. Her ability at 24, 25 years old to be able to order adults around with confidence and not in a mean way, not in a spirited way, but get her hands dirty and do that stuff. I was incredibly, incredibly proud of her. And my sister and my brother-in-law should be incredibly proud of her. And even my nephew, Matt, was unbelievable. Chris Markey, our next district attorney, is my guest. You know, this big operation you had all around the county, people saw it out in the corners, people holding signs, all the signs all over the place, the big fundraisers you had. It signals to everybody you got deep roots in Bristol County. To be able to staff those polls with all volunteers like that, get all the signatures without having to pay for any of them, all of that stuff signals you got real respect and deep roots all throughout the county. Yeah. And I, I think it's more that the people around me have that as well. Okay. Like, you know, I, I always describe it as the reservoir of trust and having a, you know, you, you help people out enough. Um, they trust you and they'll, they feel like, Hey, he's a good guy. I'll do something for him. Um, the people around me are the same way. Matt Burke over in Fall River is the lawyer that kind of everyone goes to when they get jammed up on something like, oh, I can't believe I got this. And Matt is the guy and they all trust him. My brother the same way in New Bedford. Thank So it's easy for that to happen when you build a career on doing those things. Chris Markey is going to be our next district attorney. you I don't want to make this partisan, but it's an important point. very You're a Democrat. The governor is going to be re-elected. She's a Democrat. You actually outperformed her in Bristol County. You told me that. much. I was a little surprised. And you start thinking about it as we are a very moderate area. and I think if you ask A lot of people in the Democratic Party, they're probably not totally happy with me because I am a moderate. And then, you know, then there's the Republicans who think if every Democrat is a crazy liberal and out on a socialist communist, right? I mean, because people like you get on the radio and say this stuff. Not about you, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you say, all right, I just try to be. Normal in the middle and try to do those things and you were so easily characterized people who are Democrats as being crazy to the left or communists or socialists and then we call everyone who's a Republican a MAGA and I don't think that's the case and I think. Um, a lot of the people in Bristol County are very independent, uh, think about those things and make those decisions based upon the person. And I grew up pretty much that way where my parents taught me to vote for the person. Anyway, I kind of, you vote for the person you can, you can trust in the position. You might not agree with them all. But if you know what you're getting, I think that's the type of people you want. We've got some people who want to speak with the next district attorney, Chris Markey. Good morning. Thanks. You're on the air. Hey, Chris. I called up to congratulate you. Mike Jansen. Hey. How are you? How are you doing? I'm doing all right. How are you? Now, my question to you is this. How are you going to battle these foolish liberal judges that allow dangerous criminals back on the street? Well, I think- That's what's going on in this state and in Bristol County. I think one of the things is, as I used to get frustrated with, is. There's a pressure from the courts to talk about numbers, moving cases in X number of days and doing certain things that can get their system going the way it is. So you always hear these time standards and getting judges to do certain things, and then they start to push that way. I think the way to handle what people perceive as liberal judges is to make sure we're prepared. We have plenty of tools in our system. arsenal to be able to hold people accountable to the maximum degree. And I think what we need to do is make it more difficult for judges to opt out of that. And over the course of time, it's just like a battle, right? You got to corner them to a point where they feel uncomfortable trying to give a guy a break if he doesn't deserve a break and they're just trying to move a case. As opposed Making sure that we also have the credibility to say, hey, not every person who comes into court deserves the maximum sentence. And we got to be able to distinguish that. And that comes from preparation, comes from experience, comes from training. So I think the number one thing we could do on our end is to be better prepared, use technology to get more information to the judges Which is quicker. The other thing is to be hungry and not back down from a judge and fight the good fight. And I think those are the things that sound corny, but they are really necessary and can do that. But there are plenty of tools in the arsenal for prosecutors to get people off the streets. Everybody, we have a regular caller, Johnny One Note, the Freetown guy, who says everybody complains about liberal judges until they get into a jam and they meet a judge who understands their circumstances and reasons with them and gives them a break. Yeah, I mean, that's the other side of it. But I do think that there are quality judges. And again, there are people that we disagree with. And, you know, we're going to be on one side, the defense attorney is going to be on the other side, and we're going to have hopefully a judge who's independent. neutral and can make a decision based on. And the other part is again, if we're prepared, we're going to be able to educate the judges. And that's the key to it. Explain how accidents happen. You know, and I mean, I. I'll just use the Oliver case. Granted, Sean, nothing happened to anyone else, but their property, people's property was damaged. And what does that mean? The people who live, who park where those cars were hit, live in a Housing development run by the housing authority. So it's low-income housing. They have a car. They get a car to go to their low, typically low-paying job. When you look at the damage that was done to four or five cars. Um, that is a problem, right? That that's not, that's a, that's more than an inconvenience to a lot of people. I mean, there, there's, how do I get to my insurance? How do I get, uh, to get to a rental car? How do I, all these, these processes that anyone else would typically have to go through being able to articulate that to a judge and have them kind of put in that position. I always say, too, is, you know, oh, good. The guy leaving the third shift or the second shift coming home at 1115 on a Cushing Avenue or on Chancery Street, and he's going to walk 75 yards to his house. He shouldn't fear getting shot by some random stray bullet. Those are the things that we need to make sure that judges understand the implications that this stuff has on our community to make it safe. And that's, again, preparation, educating them, and going through that process. My guest is Chris Markey. He's our next district attorney here in Bristol County, probably one of the most prepared guys for the job. You started out years ago as a victim witness under Paul Walsh. I did. How important is that role going to be in your office? Huge. I mean, I think that there. You know, you go to the hospital, the first person you see is some receptionist behind the desk, right? And you want them to not be the grumpy old lady in the Monsters, Inc. movie, right? Like, you know, you need someone who's gracious and understanding. Yeah. And that receptionist is really a victim and is an advocate for a victim of a crime. Sure. You want to make sure that they understand that, that they have communications with them, that they build a trust and relationship. They're always there to help the victim and the assistant DA get to that goal. But they need to have the courage to challenge an assistant DA to say, hey, you got to talk to this person, right? And the other one is when they're in the courthouse to every time, every 15 minutes, say, hey, we're working on it. We're waiting for the judge or waiting for a witness or waiting for... But... When our anxiety grows, when we're at doctor's office or dentist offices, the anticipation, the waiting, right? So if we can make that better for a better experience for them, we want to do that. Now you may say that's not much, but I did it all the time. So I know how it impacts. And I know that it's incredibly helpful to put them in that position. Sometimes it's awkward. Sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes we don't do exactly what a victim or a witness wants us to do with a case. Um, but you need to be able to have the courage to talk to them, explain the process. So that's an important part of it. And I think we need to make sure we do a better job of that. And, um, you know, I, I, again, and part of it is, is working on sentencing, like getting the right sentence for the individuals. is important and how it's impacted and asking the right questions. Like, for example, a car accident with a parked car. You go, okay, to a property owner. Ah, it's only a property owner. No, it's not. It's six days. And then with the supply chain, as bad as it is, some of these auto body places, you're out for three weeks. And you're waiting and you're trying to figure out. Getting that information out from the witness and the victim is an important part of what a victim witness advocate could be doing. And it also is going to educate an assistant DA to look at a case and say, this is more than just a property damage case. It's something more. Chris, people who get sentenced in Bristol County come up for parole. You've got a number of them now that are being let out, things like that. Will your office take an active role in talking about those, going to the parole board, things like that? I think there are certain cases we certainly would be, and there are other cases that we wouldn't be. I'm thinking high-profile homicides, things like that. Obviously, I think we would have someone involved in analyzing all of those cases. The big thing is looking at their, I think it might be a seven-part trial, seven-part file or five-part file, and having access to that to make a determination as to what this person's done while incarcerated so you can have a chance to look at it, much like we do with the sexually dangerous persons. Having someone look at all of that information to make a determination as to, hey, do we file against this guy or not? And then do we oppose it and how much do we oppose it? Or if you are going to release him, these are the conditions that we believe are appropriate. So, again, that we're diagnosing those cases individually. We're figuring out what the right what we believe the right thing to do is. And again, people say, oh, parole, parole, parole is an important element to the criminal justice system. Parole allows individuals who are incarcerated to, if they behave well, they get, they are incentivized. And if they don't pay, they, they are punished more. So I know people say, oh, well, I don't think everyone who gets a 10 to 12, if one guy does everything right and investing in himself and trying to make himself better, and the other guy is doing nothing but getting in fights and getting G reports all the time, why should they get out on the same time? We got to incentivize that. So the decisions of the parole board, yeah, politically it looks horrible and all that stuff, but there's a reason for it. And I think that it's an important part of the criminal justice system. Chris, you said to me in one of our many phone calls and conversations, most of the people that we send to jail are coming back. They're going in, but they're coming home. Oh, yeah, especially in the district court level. I mean, everyone's, I mean, the most you can get is two and a half years, and very rarely do you get those these days. Thank But you have people going into state prison in three to five years, five to seven. They're getting out. And depending on their age when they go in depends on what their criminal behavior will be after. I mean, if they're 20 years old going in getting a three to five, you. Chances are when they get out at 24 years old. They're going to be involved in it again. You get a 35-year-old who gets a 3-to-5. When he gets 42, he's like, what the hell have I done with my life? And he's going to not be a problem. So you've got to analyze it that way. Chris, I've always heard this, that there's these high-impact players that one or two people in a community cause most of the chaos. Do you go along with that? Do you agree with that? I think there are high-impact players. There are people who spend most of their time Organizing and or planning criminal behavior, and I think those are the people that we need to focus on, and there's ways to do that, but you got to know who they are, and again, that's good police work, it's understanding, it's not, when we say good police work, it's not just knocking down doors and pulling cars over. It's sitting in a neighborhood and realizing, hey, you know, person A is with person B. That's weird because person B, I knew him growing up and he is a good guy. I don't know what's he doing with person A. Something must be going on. You can maybe encounter person B and say, hey, what's up? What's going on? Because you know him, you have a personal relationship with him. And all of a sudden you start to acquire some information that's intelligence that can help you somewhere down the line. Or you say, hey, person A is with person B. D, E, and F, and we know D, E, and F are bad people. Right. We've got to watch this group. This is maybe something percolating here. So having those discussions between the police and having that communication is all intelligence gathering, which can help solve cases, maybe even prevent cases. Chris Markey is my guest. He's our next district attorney. We've got some people on hold. Good morning. Thanks for holding. You're on the air. All right, that's no problem. We're going to take a break, Chris. We'll be back. Stick around. We've got Chris Markey, district attorney. Our next district attorney here will be right back. Stick around. South Coast Now with Chris McCarthy. Weekdays on 1420 AM and 99.5 FM. Welcome back to the program. You know, for 79 years now, doesn't seem that long, but for 79 years, Carter's Clothing has kept the South Coast covered from head to toe. And Carter's is still your go-to store for top name brands in clothing and footwear like Carhartt, Ariat, Timberland, Chippewa, New Balance, and more. 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You're probably the only vote I cast that did win. I know. I think me too, actually. I wish you lots of luck. Thank you. Here's the thing that I've noticed. I used to spend time in courtrooms with an occupation that I had. It's been a few years. But what I noticed a lot in courtrooms and, yes, in the third district courtrooms was a lot of the ADAs. It's kind of hard to blame the judge. You have to have an ADA who presents a strong case to the judge. I noticed that a lot of them were like meek, quiet. They weren't prepared. They didn't have the facts together. They didn't have the case together. They didn't know nothing about the case. And I've seen a lot of judges get frustrated over that. And I don't know if you have seen that in your past, and maybe you have, and that's something that maybe you can work on a little bit. Because as far as a judge, a judge can only go by what is presented to him. And if it's presented to him poorly, he has no other choice than to maybe lean towards the other way. Am I correct? You are spot on. Absolutely 100%. That's what I was talking about earlier, is the preparation, I think. Ninety-five percent of what an assistant DA does is prep work, and the five percent is actually in court. And that prep work comes from, you know, like one of the things, towards the end of my tenure 20 years ago, we were finally trying to organize what Chris had earlier talked about as impact players. And I had a rolling file cabinet, and I had the 25 people in New Bedford who we believed were Really that involved in the violence and anytime they got arrested, I had this file of old police reports, complaints, everything, so that we can look at it and then submit that immediately at an arraignment for a dangerousness hearing. The technology is so much better now. We can get that stuff right into the courtroom. We don't have to have a file back at the office that does that. And we can have that handed to the defense attorney to do all that. And the other thing is, I want to make sure if we're going to do a dangerousness hearing and we actually have live testimony, I think there's a reason for doing it. It preserves testimony in the way in which we can use it at trial if a victim or a witness doesn't, I call it takes a Dixie, isn't going to be around. There's a chance that we could use that. So I think that preparation is the most important thing. You don't go into a football game without a game plan. Um, it's the same thing. You gotta be prepared. You gotta work at it. And then when you have the chance to, to do it, um, you're ready to roll. And that's kind of the position that I take on it. My expectations will be that. And you have to be more aggressive, I think, as an ADA. I'm sure you must remember attorney David George. Oh, yeah. We all do. Yeah. I mean, that guy, man, if you were an ADA, you were going up against that guy first thing in the morning. Good luck to you, man. I mean, he was just a lion. I had probably five trials against him. And I will tell you, I somehow luckily... I never lost the case against David George, and I know that sounds like an arrogant jerk or whatever, but those are the proudest ones that I have. When David was tremendous, he was one of a kind, and he was so good. He was. He, uh... And again, why I would prepare more than anything when I won against him because he is so good. That mentality is something that needs, I mean, when Joe Harrington Sr. would come, you'd always be super prepared. When Judge Quinn was on the bench, you had to be super prepared. Um, and, um, there, I, you have a Tony Cruz, Pat Walsh. You could go down a list, Jay Clark and in Fall River, um, all these people. How about Judge London? Do you remember, are you old enough to remember Judge London? Uh, I don't think I had hit puberty before he got off the bench. So I, I, I was a young boy. That guy filled more jail cells than anybody. He was brutal. Um, but yeah, um, So I look at it as it is, you are spot on about preparation and being hungry. Those are the two things that I keep talking about is making sure we're prepared, we're trained well, and that we're hungry and not willing to compromise on some of those things. Good luck to you, sir. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks, Johnny One Note. Johnny One Note. We're going to take a break, then we'll be right back. More with our next district attorney, Representative Christopher Markey. Just Chris, we'll be right back. Welcome back to the program. I'm Chris McCarthy. My guest is Representative Chris Markey, soon to be our district attorney. And you, of course, are taking over once again for a Quinn. Yeah. And Tom Quinn's done a hell of a job. You guys have a close relationship. Talk about the work that Tom Quinn's done and how he'll be missed. I said this to my brother and I said it to John Quinn. I said the Quinns have Paved the road and the Markeys are getting to drive on it because I took over for John as a state rep and now for Tom. No more hopefully, Chris. I've talked to Tom actually this morning and I told him, I said, you know, essentially he's one of the reasons why I love the job. Thank you, Bob. If you ask anyone who was around in Fall River District Court in the jury of six session back in the early 90s and then in Superior Court in the mid 90s. in the 90s. And got to see Tom Quinn be a prosecutor. He was tremendous. He knew how to get the bad guys. And he had a soft heart and understood people and their frailties. And to me, that was incredibly impressive for a young guy. He was in his early 30s and he had that sense, that moral sense of what's right and wrong and how to go about it. But his ability to get the bad guys was incredibly impressive. It required back then. Calling someone in Stoughton to get a police report and then it would get faxed down and it'd have to get faxed down because, you know, we needed it that day for a bail argument or we needed to revoke someone's bail on this and get a docket sheet from ex-court. And he put all those pieces together every single day. He was thinking of all the moving parts all the time and. That is someone who you watched, and it was incredibly impressive. And he had this great—he still does have a great moral compass of what's the right thing to do. I agree. And he cares about the community. He cares about the legal profession. He cares about the people who work for him. I think that's the way you want to do it. And I think him going out on his own terms is probably the most impressive thing. He... He was grateful, I think, for the years that he put into the DA's office, from a younger prosecutor all the way up to when he became a first assistant and then the DA. And he surrounded himself with good people. And he wants to see the right thing done for the right reasons. And I mean, I can't thank him enough for motivating me to do that back in the day and saying this is the job I love. And you ask people, Back in those times, um, you know, They would call me young Chris Markey, and then they would pick on me and say a little Tom Jr. Thank you very much. And I would, because I did want to be like that, because it was incredibly impressive, and he was very successful at getting real sentences on real bad guys. We got Chris Markey, and he just won the election for district attorney of Bristol County. We've got a lot of people who want to speak to you, Chris. Good morning, you're on with Representative Markey. Hi, Sheila. Is it me? Yes, it is you, Sheila. Okay. I just wanted to say congratulations to Chris. Remember when, I don't know if he just got out of law school, or he was already an attorney. Oh, yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. I just wanted to say, I remember. Maybe you don't, but you will. Thank you. Well, that's one of those things that I also want to pass on, is make sure that the young assistant DA's... Go the extra yard and go to the police stations, meet with the police officers, prepare them for testimony and doing those things and have that that relationship all the time. And it's really, really important because I think that trust is necessary to to be able to be successful during the trials. Oh, but it's weird that I still turn it, but I kind of like it because I'm. Not a criminal. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thanks for calling, Sheila. Let's go. Everybody's really, really happy for you, Chris, and happy for all of us that you're our district attorney. Good morning. Thanks for holding. Good morning, Chris. Hey, Chris. Congratulations, young man. You know, the last couple of years when you've been coming in as a guest here and talking about some of the major cases, but as the years have gone by, I've sat there and watched you in the courtroom, And the same way you were describing... DA Quinn, you have those qualities too, a tough skin, but a soft heart. You do a lot in the community and your dad's up in heaven looking down on you and so proud, my friend. I was listening when you were describing yourself and how you want to apply yourself. And I've seen you do it all along. So I think you're going to take it to the next level. And I think you're going to keep people accountable on both ends within your office and try to keep the judges accountable. And I hope Bristol County gets better for it. Thanks. Well, considering the presiding judge in New Bedford District Court is one of my high school buddies, I'll make sure he stays in line. Like, he's going to keep me in line as well. Chris, it was a bipartisan campaign, overwhelming, yet a lot of support from the business community, a lot of support all around. And again, it's like everybody knew this was the job for you, and we're all glad you decided to step up and take it. Yeah, and obviously people can criticize me for saying that's the job I wanted all the time, and he's always wanted that. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I didn't do it on a whim. I didn't do it. I did it because I love it and I want it. The younger assistant DA is to be able to love it as much as I did. I want to be able to have a positive impact in the criminal world of the courthouses and use those experiences I've had in the criminal world to be able to help people and make sure we hold people accountable and at the same time help people who need help. Because, again, we're not a social service. I always call it we're not the social justice system, we're the criminal justice system. But there is aspects to it. Being socially aware of issues that are going on and trying to help people. Let me see if we can get this last call in. Good morning, you're on the air. Hey, Chris Markey, congratulations. Very, very well deserved. I'm extremely happy for you and happy for us. With all due respect, I just have to say I called Chris McCarthy yesterday because I wanted to wake up elated this morning that... The governor had, you know, Minogue had won and clearly that didn't happen. But I do have a question for you. How do you see this country from a, you know, from a standpoint of being with the background that you have with people like, you know, Michigan and other radical people being sworn into office? How do you see this going for us? I mean... I know it was this election. I personally, myself, I think it was, let's, you know, give it to Trump. And they certainly did what they set out to do. But how do you see this? How do you see this going? Because I'm not sure. We're almost out of time. So I quickly just say it.