When John J. Flynn Jr. became Erie County’s district attorney in 2017, he couldn’t have predicted that New York would go through multiple rounds of criminal justice reforms.
He didn’t know a massive sex abuse scandal would unfold within the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo or that 10 Black people would be killed by a racist gunman at a Tops on the East Side.
Erie County DA John Flynn to resign, may step down in early 2024
And he had no idea that he would put former political boss G. Steven Pigeon behind bars on charges of child rape.
“I knew I could be as proactive as I wanted to be, but the reality is that events are going to happen that turn you from proactive to reactive,” Flynn said. “I had to be reactive to bail reform, discovery reform, the Tops shooting, the (Martin) Gugino matter, the diocese, the big cases that come about. You have to react to that.”
In a recent meeting with the Editorial Board of The Buffalo News, Flynn reflected on those topics while giving a deeper explanation of why he is stepping down a year before his second term expires.
He also shared his plans for what he will be doing in the private sector when his top deputy, Michael Keane, takes over the office in April.
Why he is leaving
Keane gets Democratic endorsement for Erie County DA
Flynn said he wanted to address “the notion that I’m leaving early in order to set up my deputy to become DA.”
“I can tell you that that is just simply not true,” Flynn said of criticism that his resignation paved the way for Keane, his first deputy district attorney, to become the next DA. (Keane received the endorsement of the Erie County Democratic Committee in November.)
“Now, I’m not going to deny when I leave early that that could potentially have a benefit to my deputy,” Flynn said. “It could also backfire if he does something wrong in the next 8…
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