The past month has provided yet
another reason why I am proud to call Rochester and Monroe County my home. The effort
of the public servants in our area gave me the reason to post this blog today.
First, we celebrated the life
of a public servant who exemplified what public service was all about, in
saying goodbye to former Sheriff Andrew Meloni, who lost his battle to cancer.
Sheriff Meloni gave forty-one years of his life to the Monroe County Sheriff
Department, with the last twenty-one years as the highest law enforcement
officer in Monroe County, as Sheriff. He led the Monroe County Sheriff’s
Department to be one of the first to be accredited statewide and nationally. He
was constantly driven by maintaining the highest of professional standards.
Sheriff Meloni treated people
with respect, and I never saw him lose his temper. He was a gentleman and a
true law enforcement professional in every sense of the word. I am sad to see
him pass on, but know he left a legacy that will remain for years to come, and
it showed with the amount of people who paid their respects to him at his
funeral services.
We also saw another public
servant handle herself with class, grace, and hard-work, in District Attorney
Sandra Doorley. Anyone who is familiar with prosecuting a case like the one
against Thomas Johnson III and the murder of Daryl Pierson knows that proving
intent is one of the most difficult things to do. Yet, in a very good trial
that never got unruly, she conducted herself as a true professional as she
prosecuted Thomas Johnson III.
The result of her work ethic
and the homework she did on the case, resulted in the jury doing its job, as
they chose to find Johnson III guilty of Felony Aggravated Murder. Thanks to
District Attorney Doorley and the jury, Johnson III will be sentenced without
the chance at parole and the chance to cause harm to any of the citizens in
Rochester.
I know that Sheriff Meloni
has left his mark on the Monroe County. I’m also proud of District Attorney
Doorley. The verdict of guilty in the
Thomas Johnson III case allows us to remember Officer Daryl Pierson as the true
hero that he was, and hopefully gave his family some peace of mind.
