Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague announces her candidacy for Essex County Judge on the steps of the Essex County Historic Courthouse Monday morning. (Enterprise photo — Sydney Emerson)

ELIZABETHTOWN — Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague announced her candidacy for Essex County Judge on Monday morning to a bundled-up crowd outside the old Essex County Courthouse.

“I do not expect to be handed this position and certainly do not feel I’m entitled to it,” she said. “It is the next natural progression for a district attorney as it is the next step after one has secured experience, knowledge and expertise in the very court they seek.”

Sprague, 52, was elected district attorney in 2009 on the Republican and Conservative party lines. She has since been re-elected unopposed three times and is currently in her fourth term. She will be running against Essex County attorney Amy Quinn of Lake Placid, who announced her bid for the judge seat on Jan. 13.

If Sprague is elected county judge, the vacancy will either be filled by a gubernatorial appointment or a special election. Sprague said that she will stand for re-election as district attorney in 2025 if she is not elected county judge.

In her speech, Sprague cited her past experience as a prosecutor and years of presenting cases in the county court as qualifications for the bench.

Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague and a bipartisan group of town supervisors and county officials pose in Elizabethtown Monday. (Enterprise photo — Sydney Emerson)

“County court entails the highest burden of proof, the strictest rules of evidence and consequences that could deprive an individual of their liberty for the rest of their life,” she said. “This is where I have practiced for half my life. I’ve balanced this criminal expertise with being an advocate for vulnerable populations, namely children.”

Before being elected district attorney, Sprague was a prosecutor in Clinton County and eventually the Clinton County chief assistant district attorney. She helped establish the North Country’s first child advocacy center, CTRAK, and later established Essex County’s first multi-disciplinary team that handles child sexual abuse investigations.

Sprague said that she believes the chief quality a judge must have is compassion, something she learned about firsthand when her brother, Derek “Boomer” Sprague, was murdered outside of a bar in Moriah in 2018. The case was prosecuted by Warren County District Attorney Jason Carusone because the victim was Sprague’s brother.

“I have learned over the years that saying you understand what a person is going through and actually understanding it are two very different things. And when you truly understand what that person is feeling, you appreciate how important your words, your actions, and your treatment need to be,” she said. “When my brother was killed, I sat in the very courtroom right over there that I advocate in and seek justice for others — but not as a prosecutor, as a crime victim. … I felt all of the hurt and the loss that many people are forced to suffer in such a public way. That experience has provided me with an appreciation to have more empathy, compassion and mindfulness for everyone in and out of the courtroom.”

The opportunity to run for county judge came at just the right time, according to Sprague. The current county judge, Richard Meyer, is approaching both the end of his second 10-year term and the mandatory retirement age of 70. If Sprague were to wait another decade to run, she would be 62 and unable to serve a full 10-year term. With her two children, Hayden and Jayde, now off at college, she said she was ready to take the next step in her career.

“I had many people urge me to seek this next important step, and seeing that it only comes around every 10 years, it seemed to me and my family that that time is now,” Sprague said.

Sprague has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from SUNY Plattsburgh and a Juris Doctorate from Albany Law School of Union College. She is from Moriah, where she now lives with her husband, Steven Trow, and her children. She is a member of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary Post 5802 in Mineville and the Elks Club of Ticonderoga.

Throughout her career as DA, Sprague has prosecuted several high-profile cases, including the 2017 sexual abuse case of Indian snowshoer Tanveer Hussain.

Hussain was charged with first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, after allegedly “engaging in a passionate kiss” with a 12-year-old victim and touching her breast. He was charged with a further count of endangering the welfare of a child when later indicted by a grand jury.

Hussain denied the charges and initially declined a plea deal because he wanted to clear his name. He later accepted the plea deal in December 2017, admitting in court to one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to time served in jail and was subsequently deported.

Sprague faced public criticism throughout the case, especially from Saranac Lake village Trustee Rich Shapiro, who hosted Hussain at his home throughout the proceedings. Sprague said that she her actions were in service of the 12-year-old victim.

Sprague also received criticism for her lack of immediate action in the 2020 false-reporting case of Cohoes police officer Sean T. McKown.

On June 6, 2020, McKown fired his service weapon while off duty and later told State Police that a Black youth had shot at him first. State Police closed the incident that July and McKown was set to retire. Following public backlash and an investigation by the Albany Times-Union, Sprague said the case was still being investigated by State Police, despite reports to the contrary. Meanwhile, people with knowledge of the investigation said Sprague met with State Police shortly after the incident and decided not to bring a case against McKown due to lack of evidence.

The case was re-opened and a grand jury indicted McKown on charges of prohibited use of weapons, discharging a firearm and two counts of falsely reporting an incident. The case was prosecuted by Sprague. Judge Meyer, whom Sprague hopes to succeed, sentenced McKown to three months in the county jail, a tougher sentence than the one year of interim probation that Sprague sought.

More recently, Sprague prosecuted the fatal stabbing of Kenneth Darrah, negotiating a plea deal on behalf of Darrah’s family that required the perpetrators to explain the motive behind the violent attack and accept determinate sentences.

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Quinn

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Attorney Amy Quinn announced her candidacy for county judge on Jan. 13.

Quinn, 53, currently serves as the principal court attorney under current county judge Meyer. A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and New England College School of Law, she began her career in 1996 representing indigent residents and private citizens in Essex County.

In 2000, she was appointed assistant Essex county attorney, representing the Department of Social Services in matters of child abuse, child support and children in need of services. Quinn volunteers on the executive boards of the Adirondack Community Action Program, Zonta International District 2 and the Holy Cross Alumni Anti-Racism Alliance.

She lives in Lake Placid with her husband Andrew, who is the Essex County Commissioner of Jurors and a village trustee. They have two adult sons.