Norfolk County ‘ready for real change’ from embattled DA Michael Morrissey as race grows

Candidates running for Norfolk County District Attorney say the growing field signals that residents are “ready for real change” from the embattled Michael Morrissey, with a former federal prosecutor the latest to enter the fray.

Adam Deitch, who led the federal investigation into the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, says he has received an “incredible response from Norfolk County residents” since launching his campaign on Tuesday.

Deitch, who also investigated the ensuing state investigation and prosecution of O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, joins Dedham resident Djuna Perkins and Cohasset resident Craig MacLellan as candidates looking to take over the Norfolk DA’s office.

“I’m looking forward to spending all of my time over the next year,” Deitch told the Herald on Wednesday, “talking with voters across the county about my positive vision for the future of the District Attorney’s Office.”

“Given my experience as a federal prosecutor focused on corruption cases – working to put a microscope to entrenched institutions,” he added, “including right here in Norfolk County – I believe I am uniquely qualified for this job, in this moment.”

The federal investigation that Deitch led into O’Keefe’s death and Read’s prosecution did not result in any charges, but the grand jury was acknowledged often during Read’s murder trials.

Morrissey, 70, has yet to announce whether he intends to run for a fifth, four-year term in next November’s election. He has served as Norfolk County’s lead prosecutor since being elected in 2010. His office did not respond to a Herald inquiry on Wednesday.

“I think the level of interest in this race shows that the people of Norfolk County are ready for real change in the District Attorney’s office,” Deitch said.

Shortly after a jury acquitted Read of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend in June, a poll surfaced showing that an overwhelming majority of Norfolk County residents are ready to elect a new DA.

Opinion Diagnostics, a Massachusetts-based polling and market research firm, found that only 4% of 1,170 Norfolk County residents who met the qualifications to be selected as jurors and responded to a post-verdict survey “affirmatively believe” Morrissey deserves reelection.

Deitch announced his campaign the same day that Read sued witnesses from her murder case, who she argues framed her for the killing of O’Keefe and are “actually involved” in his death.

In his campaign announcement, Deitch said he’s “seen firsthand what happens when police and prosecutors take shortcuts, rush to judgment, and then stubbornly won’t consider other possibilities – innocent people are wrongfully accused, crimes go unsolved, and bad cops are protected while good officers lose faith.

“That’s what we need to change in Norfolk County,” he added.

Perkins and MacLellan, both former Suffolk County prosecutors, have also been critical of Morrissey’s handling of the Read prosecution. Money and resources poured into her two murder trials could have been better used in other high-level cases that have thrust the Norfolk DA’s Office into the spotlight, they’ve argued.

Those cases, among others, include the death of Sandra Birchmore, a 23-year-old Canton resident who authorities said was strangled to death in 2021 by a Stoughton cop while pregnant; and the death of Ana Walshe, a 39-year-old mother of three, allegedly dismembered by her husband, Brian Walshe, of Cohasset.

MacLellan, who served as a Suffolk Assistant District Attorney and then an investigating staff attorney at the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct, says he expects to see the candidate field grow even more in the coming weeks, and he’s “grateful to be among them.”

“The manner in which the Norfolk County DA’s Office serves residents needs to be completely reimagined by applying an approach that builds awareness, seeks community input, and earns trust,” MacLellan, a practicing defense attorney, told the Herald on Wednesday.

“Having a full field of accomplished candidates is a great first step towards electing a DA that will restore our community’s confidence in its criminal justice ‘complex,’” he added.

Perkins, who announced her candidacy in September 2024, just days after MacLellan said he’d explore a run, worked as a Massachusetts assistant attorney general in the 1990s. She then served as the Suffolk DA’s chief of the domestic violence unit from 1997 to 2002.

Perkins told the Herald on Wednesday that she “welcomes” Deitch to the race.

“It is clear that voters want to put an end to the scandal and failed prosecutions in the Norfolk DA’s office, and I know that my unrivaled 30+ years experience as an attorney helping hundreds of Massachusetts families get justice for some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, and having served as an Assistant District Attorney and Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts state courts, best suits me to do so.”