Essex Assistant DA MacDougall Named Prosecutor of the Year

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall.

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall was named the William O’Malley Prosecutor of the Year last Thursday at the Annual Massachusetts Prosecutor’s Conference in Boston. The award was presented to MacDougall by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett.

MacDougall has been a prosecutor for nearly 20 years. She started her career in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office in 1998 and was appointed chief of the Family Crimes and Sexual Assault Unit in the Essex District Attorney’s office in 2006. In that time, she has overseen and assigned hundreds of investigations of child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence and elder and disabled persons’ abuse.

“The combination of her tremendous talent as a trial attorney and her genuine compassion for crime victims makes Kate a formidable force for justice,” said Blodgett. “She is a powerful advocate for victims, most particularly for children who have been physically abused or sexually assaulted,” he added.

She has prosecuted hundreds of cases, most notably Philip Chism, the 14-year-old Danvers High School student who raped and murdered his teacher; Kristen LaBrie, the mother who withheld chemotherapy treatment from her 9-year-old autistic son; and Valentin Underwood, who kidnapped and brutalized a young woman more than 20 years ago.

She leads a team of child abuse investigators as president of the Essex Child Advocacy Center in Lawrence.

She was previously honored by the Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly as a Top Woman of Law in 2011 and received an Excellence in Training Award from the Massachusetts District Attorney’s Office in 2012.

She is a 1993 graduate of McGill University and 1997 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law.

One thought on “Essex Assistant DA MacDougall Named Prosecutor of the Year

  1. “Trophies…get your trophies!!”

    Liberals give out so many trophies to each other they’re like the hotdog vendors outside Fenway Park.