Gary Lacey was half a world away, in the U.S. Army in Thailand, when he got interested in the law in the late 1960s.
The man who would become Lancaster County's longest-serving county attorney had studied journalism, but his commanding officer appointed the junior officer to prosecute cases, first in Arizona, then in Korat, Thailand.Â
By 1969, he was back in the states, studying at the University of Nebraska College of Law. After three years as a corporate staff attorney, he took a job working under then-County Attorney Ron Lahners.
Thirty-five years later -- 20 of them as county attorney --Â he is retiring. Lacey said in August 2009 he wouldn't run for re-election. In November, his chief deputy, Joe Kelly, was elected to succeed his boss.
On Lacey's last day in his fourth-floor corner office in the Hall of Justice, packed boxes around him, he reflected on his career. Here's a sampling of the conversation.
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Do you remember your first day on the job? When I got here, I went into Ron's office and he said, "We've got a really big backlog of drug cases in the county court and I want you to prosecute drug cases." I was shocked. That was the farthest thing from my mind, being a prosecuting attorney. And when I started doing the drug cases, I just liked it. I liked putting the bad guys away.
Did you imagine yourself still being here 35 years later and the top guy? No. I didn't. ... the county attorney's office was a place you could get experience and move on to private practice, because that's where you can make some money. That was kind of the way the county attorney's offices and district attorney's offices throughout the nation were. If people didn't use it as a stepping stone into private practice, they used it as a stepping stone into other political jobs ... or to be a judge. But, from the time I started here through now, career prosecutors are becoming more common. You need that kind of continuity in an office. To come in and try to seek to do the right thing and see that justice is done is not something you can just do because you have a law degree.
Are you disappointed you were never chosen to be a judge? I tried a couple times. But now that I look back on it, I don't have the right temperament to be a judge. I don't think I would have the patience. I like the freedom that a prosecutor has. And I also think that, of all the people that are in the criminal justice system, whether it be defense lawyers, judges, probation staff, the prosecutor is the main person who can effect change in the system. Nothing happens in the criminal justice system until I file a charge.
I learned pretty early on that any sort of program that you might want to start to make the system better or to have a rehabilitative effect on those convicted of crimes had to really start in the prosecutor's office. ... I learned that from my predecessor, Ron Lahners (who started the pre-trial diversion program.) As time went along, I thought, if I really want to make a difference in my community, I think this is the place to do it.
(Lacey set in motion a juvenile diversion program and the Child Advocacy Center.) That's the beginning of the story. About 600 kids a year go through there (the center), and all 600 are helped. Even if we don't get a prosecutable case out of it, at least the kids know that someone cares. We opened the doors in 1996, and today they're starting to move over to the new advocacy center.
They're naming the (child advocacy) training center after you. What does that mean to you? That makes me feel very, very proud of what the system can accomplish if we put our minds to it. To have my name on that, it's just very humbling.
When you look over your career, is that your legacy? I think the emphasis I've given on juvenile matters is probably going to be something that I'll be remembered for. We have the Smart program, where our lawyers go out to the public schools and carry on a dialogue with them about the cases that happened in school. If kids get too lax about coming to school ... the kids and their parents have to come up here and explain the reasons why. I think that we've cut down on truancy because of that.
That's something people might not necessarily think of when they think of a county attorney's office. They think of the big murder trial. And that's important, there's no doubt about it. People are killed and injured in a really serious way and you have to take those cases seriously, and we do. We have people who are really experienced prosecutors to handle those cases. And I handled some myself when I was not the county attorney. But to effect some kind of change you have to focus in more on the causes of why people are there and find themselves in the criminal justice system. Only the prosecutor can really do that.
You've worked on a lot of murder cases, a lot of big cases. What are the moments that stick out in your mind from your time in the courtroom? The very first murder case that I was involved with myself was Randy Reeves, who killed two women who were at the Friends Home, a Quaker church, and left a baby there alone he didn't know was there. Making the decision to go for the death penalty in that case. Trying the case for four to five weeks, and more weeks and months to have the penalty phase.
The murder happened in 1980, he was convicted a year later in 1981, and then for 20 years the case was in the system. Eventually, the United States Supreme Court said juries had to make the decision as to whether or not someone got the death penalty, so Nebraska had to change its laws. It got to be 20 years. And in my own mind I came to the conclusion that if a government can't impose a sanction in 20 years, then what's the use? So rather than coming back and having a whole new sentencing hearing and having him be in appeals for another 20 years, I said, "Let's just not do it." So I decided to make it life in prison, and that's what happened.
The most difficult case for me was Candi Harms' case. The butchery that people even in Lincoln, Nebraska, can inflict on another person is just mind boggling. What they did to that girl was just horrifying. There's no other way to say it.
I remember right before Christmas (in 1992)Â the police found out who had done it and they found the body. It was just starting to snow and there was a little bit collecting on the sidewalk. Mrs. Harms was out on the front porch sweeping the snow off and she looked up and saw the police car. It was a detective's car, but she knew. And you could see in her eyes that she knew that we were there to tell her what happened. And I have never ever spent a more difficult time in my life than talking to them, trying to comfort them and tell them what happened to their daughter. ... It was just awful. ... There's a higher being than us, and I think prosecutors sometimes have to keep that in mind.
Over the years, you've seen lots of things that a lot of people wouldn't want to look at. Those kinds of images, they have an effect on you. But in my case, they give you the energy to go forth to seek justice for the people whose crimes we prosecute.
Tell me about the decision to go for the job in the first place. (Then-County Attorney) Mike (Heavican) decided he wanted to be attorney general. I really was forced into making a decision as to whether I wanted to do it. So I finally decided I would do it, and I'm not at all unhappy that I did.
Was it a conscious decision to have a life of public service? No. It was more happenstance, but I fell into a job that I love. I really do love this job. It's very, very fulfilling.
What do you find fulfilling about it? Making a difference in the system. It's been my work outside the actual court process that I've gotten most of my enjoyment from ... and that is starting things that help the system work better.
So you don't necessarily miss being the guy at the counsel table for the big case? No, no. I prosecuted 20 or 30 homicide cases, and it's important to have that skill, and it's important that you know what's involved in that skill. I wouldn't want a prosecuting attorney that had never been through that. And I wouldn't want anyone to think it's a piece of cake, because it isn't.
In your county attorney position, is it more about management? You definitely are a leader and manager. I've had my disagreements with our county commissioners. But I see my job from a perspective they don't have the ability to see it from, so they don't necessarily do what I want them to do. But that's the way it is when you live in a democracy. You really have to kick and bite and scream to get what you want. And I'll do all those things -- to get proper pay for my staff. At least they know I'm serious about my job and my staff.
How much of the job is political? I don't think it really should be very political. I know in Nebraska the county attorney has to run by associating himself with a party. I'm not sure that's how it should be, but that's what we're stuck with until someone decides that it should be otherwise. But I've never had any problem with that because when I'm hiring people I don't do it on a partisan basis.
One of the changes you've seen over the years is more women in the office. When I went to law school there were no women in my class. Now more than half of the law school classes are women. I haven't counted, but I would say that probably the same is true in my office. Some of my toughest prosecutors are women, and some of my smartest prosecutors are women.
What do you see as the current state of the court system in Lancaster County? Are things headed in the right direction? We have very good district court judges. I don't always agree with what they do, but on the whole they do a very nice job. Our county court judges are also dedicated to their work. I think we're in good shape there. We have a good sheriff and police chief. We have a supportive county board. So I think everything is going in the right direction. Certainly there can be some changes, legislatively, that would make a difference. But those kinds of things come in time.
When you walk out of your office, are you going to have a smile on your face? Will there be tears? There won't be tears. I will be happy that I've done a good job and I've left the office a better place than when I came. I think the people that are here, that will carry on, are the kind of people I'd like to see running the county attorney's office, and being part of it. You can't find a more dedicated group of people. I have no regrets.
Will you miss it? I think so. I think I'll miss not knowing the inside story on everything, but I think I'll probably get over that.