A 25-Year Journey to State's Attorney

The Agency Veteran, to Be Sworn In Ceremonially Today, Is Reorganizing the Office

John McCarthy's sleeves were rolled up, as they tend to be, when he stepped behind the lectern last week to address the employees of the Montgomery County state's attorney's office. Some have known him for decades. Many are friends. After all, few lawyers in the Rockville legal scene have been around longer than McCarthy, who joined the office in 1982.

But this was the first time Montgomery's new state's attorney was talking to them as the top law enforcement official in the county. And they were all dying to know: What's John going to do?

"It only took me 25 years to get here," he said, breaking the ice and drawing some laughter. "I've been through this six times."

By "six times," he was referring to the arrival of new state's attorneys during his time at the office. McCarthy, who has a ceremonial swearing-in today, is wasting no time in making the office -- run by new Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler for the past eight years -- his own.

McCarthy, 54, appointed two deputies, promoting one from in-house and hiring one from Prince George's County. He streamlined some of the midlevel management positions, scaling down Gansler's community prosecution system to distribute more cases by area of expertise rather than geography.

He assigned two additional prosecutors to work solely on gang cases, an increase designed to tackle the county's growing gang problem at all levels of the justice system.

"The community has identified this as an issue they want us to devote resources to," he said, citing polling data from the November election.

McCarthy is also starting a cyber-crimes unit, which will work closely with police to go after sexual predators who troll online for minors. He intends to devote more resources to cold cases, and the office recently started using wiretaps in investigations.

Over dinner recently at a restaurant in Rockville, he reached across the table, grabbed a paper place mat and furiously drew a flowchart outlining some of his ideas. He paused and smiled.

"I've only had 25 years to think about this," he said. "I want to think outside the box to make sure we can be the best we can be."

Unlike Gansler, McCarthy is not viewed as a career politician and says he has no plans to run for higher office. He has served as deputy state's attorney since 1996.

McCarthy has been nominated for seats on circuit and district court benches a handful of times, but a judgeship never materialized. His most precarious career juncture was the transition between Robert L. Dean -- who lost the 1998 election amid the revelation of an affair with a subordinate -- and Gansler.