Submitted Photo Pictured from left is David Soares and Patrick Swanson.

Mayville — District Attorney Patrick Swanson was recently selected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the District Attorney’s Association of the State of New York (DAASNY). Outgoing President of the Association Scott McNamara, District Attorney of Oneida County, presided over the nomination and unanimous approval of Swanson. Swanson joined the twenty (24) member board along with Caroline Wojtaszek (DA of Niagara County), Eric Gonzalez (DA of Kings County – Brooklyn) and Michael McMahon (DA of Richmond County – Staten Island). Swanson is just the second (2nd) District Attorney from Chautauqua County to be selected to sit on the Board of Directors. The only other Chautauqua County District Attorney to serve on the board was James Subjack, who served as Chautauqua County District Attorney from 1994 – 2005. Albany County District Attorney David Soares was also sworn in as the new President of the Association.

The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York (DAASNY), previously the New York State District Attorneys Association (NYSDAA) was created in 1909 as a professional organization for prosecuting attorneys (both District Attorneys and Assistant District Attorneys) practicing in New York State. The membership of DAASNY is all of the elected District Attorneys, as well as their Assistant District Attorneys, from the 62 New York State counties. DAASNY has a membership totaling in the thousands. The purposes of this Association are to serve as an agency for promoting and ensuring the fair and ethical administration of justice, encourage closer personal acquaintance among prosecuting officials in the State of New York and to make possible the exchange of information and views in respect to the conduct of their various offices so as to promote a greater degree of efficiency, and as deemed necessary or advisable, to so support or oppose legislation for the amendment of the criminal law and for the improvement of the procedure of the prosecution of crime. The Association has a number of working committees such as the Legislative Committee, the Fair and Ethical Administration of Justice Committee, the Appellate Committee, the Best Practices Committee and the Ethics Guidance Committee.

Swanson had this to say, “Being asked to serve on the board of such a storied and respected Association is an honor and a privilege. Being from a smaller county my aim is to educate the Association on the issues that face smaller, less wealthy counties. There is no one size fits all approach to New York State and I think the Association does a phenomenal job recognizing each county’s unique challenges. Representing Chautauqua County, I look forward to being a part of an over century old institution whose primary objective is the fair and ethical administration of justice.”