Massachusetts acting U.S. attorney reflects on first year in office

Despite being named Massachusetts' top federal prosecutor amid controversy, the state's acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said the office has bounced back and he's grateful to be at the helm.

"I never envisioned becoming the acting U.S. Attorney under those circumstances, " Levy said during a media roundtable at his office Wednesday "But I did my level best every day to show up and stabilize the office."

Levy was named to the post when his predecessor, Rachael Rollins, stepped down after two scathing ethics reports from federal investigators. The reports outlined allegations of misconduct when Rollins served as Massachusetts U.S. Attorney, including trying to use the federal office to interfere in local politics.

Levy said the office is strong and the allegations did not involve the work of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"I won't sugar coat the events that happened," Levy said. "It was a significant blow to the office when those reports came out. That being said, the tenure of the former U. S. Attorney is a smaller dot in the rear view mirror every day."

When Rollins stepped down last May, Levy was named "acting" U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. Although President Biden nominated him to the permanent post, the U.S. Senate has not voted to confirm the nomination.

"I want to see the 'acting' taken out of my title," Levy said "I'm now waiting for a Senate vote which may or may not happen."

An issue that has grown larger for Levy is potential risks to law enforcement officers. He mentioned a recent case where a man charged in a federal drug case allegedly said he wanted two federal prosecutors killed.

"We live in very vitriolic times," Levy said. "I would say the threats to members of law enforcement are happening across the country and it came home for us in that case. When two of our own are threatened, it was the case I thought about when I could close my eyes at night and when my eyes opened in the morning."

Now, Levy said, the office focuses on several issues, and prosecutes more human trafficking cases than any other U.S. Attorney's office in the nation.

The largest unit in the office is devoted to crimes involving narcotics and money laundering, addressing both the supply of drugs and the demand for them. He said drug overdose deaths in Massachusetts show the opioid epidemic is still a problem for law enforcement to address.

"Our numbers on opioid overdose deaths are not good," Levy said. "The numbers have tracked down slightly, but they're still way too high. We are going after large scale drug traffickers and we have multiple cases that have international roots, really back to Mexico."

Although there is growing interest in Massachusetts to allow safe injection sites, where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision, Levy said he has not yet determined how his office might respond.

"It's an issue that we're monitoring," he said. "If and when there comes a time that we need to take a position, I can tell you it's going to be a department-wide position. This is a nationwide issue and I've been in consultation with officials within [The U.S. Department of Justice] to get educated on this topic. But we'll deal with it when it's ripe."

Going forward, Levy said his priorities include efforts to keep communities safe, protect children, and working on hate crimes and civil rights cases. He said he also wants to consider innovative criminal justice reforms and ways to reduce recidivism.

"I feel very privileged to have this job," Levy said." I have the same feeling at age 58 that I did at age 35 about how lucky I am to be able to work in this office."