Former Cape DA Phil Rollins dies at 70

CYNTHIA McCORMICKand KEVIN DENNEHY

Philip A. Rollins, who helped change the face of the state justice system during 32 years as a district attorney, died on Christmas. He was visiting his daughter and her family in Ipswich.

(Staff photo by Steve Heaslip)Those who knew him described Rollins yesterday as a groundbreaking prosecutor, an evenhanded boss and, most of all, an honorable man.

He is credited with persuading state lawmakers to create a separate district attorney's office for the Cape and islands.

Rollins, who retired in 2002, was 70 and made his home in Mashpee. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

''His family wants people to know that he died peacefully after retiring for the night,'' Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe, who worked with Rollins for more than two decades before becoming his successor, said last night.

''His death is a great loss to many,'' O'Keefe said. ''Professionally, he was a quiet leader and a mentor to so many. Personally, he was a man of great dignit sensitivity.''

During his decades-long career in public service, Rollins created the first victim-witness program in the state. He prodded state police to assign detectives to each district attorney's office for major crime investigations.

And he persuaded the Legislature to create a separate district attorney's office for the Cape and islands, which had previously been represented by the New Bedford district attorney.

He was also among the first district attorneys to hire female prosecutors, despite some public opposition to this when he first won elective office.

Rollins always said that he was inspired by his stepmother, a role model in many ways. She led her own three-woman law firm in Boston during the 1940s.

''He was one of the good guys,'' said state police Detective Lt. John Allen. ''He gave people every opportunity to succeed. He cared about people, and he cared about doing things right.''

While Rollins disdained the trappings of public life - the attention and favor-seeking - he relished meeting people and making friends, O'Keefe said.

''He had friends all across the board, from governors and congressmen to the guys in the barber shop.''

Rollins once said a critical part of success is listening to people and returning their telephone calls.

Yet he still maintained a quiet and private demeanor, except among those he accepted as close personal friends or proteg

233 s, including O'Keefe and W. James O'Neill, a district court judge who began as an assistant district attorney under Rollins.

''He used to drop by the office a couple times a week and I really looked forward to those visits,'' O'Keefe recalled yesterday. ''I am really going to miss him.''

A life in public service

Rollins was born in Brookline, where his family already had roots in public service.

Timeline: The life and career of Philip Rollins

Politics and prosecuting, Rollins style:

150

160 Rollins was raised in Brookline, where his father served as town counsel and selectman.

150

160 He earned an undergraduate degree studying histor English at Dartmouth College considered engineering as a career but opted instead to get a law degree at Boston College.

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160 In 1970, he unseated longtime District Attorney Edmund Dinis, a Democrat, when the Cape and islands were part of the old

147 southern districtquot that included towns in most of Southeastern Massachusetts and the islands.

150

160 One of his early acts as the newly elected district attorney was to dismiss charges against members of the Black Panther party taken out the previous year by his predecessor during race riots in New Bedford.

150

160 In 1973 Rollins became the first to offer a voice print as evidence during the trial of Edward S. Lykus, who was subsequently convicted of kidnapping and murdering 13-year-old Paul Cavalieri. Two years later the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the use of voice print as legitimate evidence.

150

160 Rollins became the first prosecutor to argue a case before the newly formed state Appeals Court in 1974. The court was established as an intermediary for the Supreme Judicial Court.

150

160 In 1975 the state Legislature approved Rollins

145 proposal to establish a Cape and islands district. He won every election over the next 25 years, retiring in 2002.

150

160 Rollins developed the Cape Cod Drug Task Force in 1982 as a regional approach to enforcing drug laws. The task force includes the sheriff

145 s department, municipal police, state police and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

150

160 In 1986, his 21-year-old daughter Allison was electrocuted while working aboard a seagoing vessel.

150

160 He oversaw the establishment of Children

145 s Cove, an agency that provides multidisciplinary services to child abuse victims and their families, in 1997.

150

160 After announcing in 2001 that he will not seek re-election, he threw his support behind Michael O

145 Keefe, a longtime prosecutor and friend.

His grandfather was a Brookline selectman, clerk of courts and a judge. His father was also a Brookline selectman and served as the town's legal counsel.

After graduating from Boston College Law School, Rollins himself served as an associate town counsel for Brookline.

In 1962, he entered his first political race in a bid for a state representative's seat. Rollins, a Republican, lost that race to a little-known candidate named Michael Dukakis.

A few years ago, Rollins remembered that first campaign against Dukakis, who would later become governor.

''I'd like to think I was effective,'' he said. ''Certainly I got told enough by the ladies in Brookline that I was a cute little kid. It was the opposite of a politician being out there kissing babies.

''I was the kid out there getting his cheek pinched.''

In 1970, a more seasoned Rollins unseated veteran Democrat Edmund Dinis to become district attorney of an office that, at the time, included Cape Cod, New Bedford and Fall River.

Within two years, he developed a program that put a state police officer in the district attorney's office, which would eventually be adopted in districts statewide.

He had recognized the strain put on municipal departments during major criminal cases during his early days as a prosecutor.

''You couldn't ask for a better guy to work for,'' said State police Lt. Robert Melia, who worked most of his career as a detective for Rollins' office, arriving in 1977.

''He trusted the people who worked for him, let people do their jobs without always looking over their shoulders.

''But the thing with Phil was, he expected you to do the right thing,'' he added. ''He expected you to have the same integrity he brought to the job.''

That sometimes meant making unpopular decisions. Early in his career he dropped charges against members of the Black Panther party, a black militant organization, that were filed by his predecessor following race riots in New Bedford.

Other times, it included a personal, and innovative, approach. In 1973, Rollins prosecuted Edward S. Lykus, who was then 20, for the murder and kidnapping of Paul Cavalieri, his 13-year-old North Attleboro neighbor.

During the trial, Rollins used a voice print from a telephoned kidnap threat made by Lykus as evidence in the trial, the first time such evidence had been used in a Massachusetts court.

Rollins stayed in touch with the victim's family, letting them know when anything was filed, said Julia Holler, chief appellate attorney for Barnstable County.

''He very much cared about the people left behind,'' she said.

In 1975, Rollins helped convince state leaders to carve a district for just the Cape and islands. He would remain its only district attorney until 2002, when he retired.

Seventeen former Rollins employees have become state judges, including District Court Judge Don L. Carpenter, District Court Judge W. James O'Neill, and Superior Court Judge Gary Nickerson

''He taught us that sometimes we have to make the tough decisions, and the important thing is doing the right thing,'' O'Neill said. ''To Phil that meant serving the interests of justice.''

A private man

Some described Rollins as a reserved man, who liked to draw a line between his private and public lives. He and his wife Priscilla, who had three children - two daughters and a son, decided long ago to keep their home life out of the public eye.

But in 1986, personal tragedy became painfully public when Rollins' 21-year-old daughter Alison, a graduate of Massachusetts Maritime Academy, was electrocuted while working aboard a private vessel.

''He changed after that,'' said Drew Segadelli, a defense attorney. ''He became more private, a little withdrawn.''

''There was a private side to Phil, a quietness that most of his staff didn't get past,'' Segadelli said.

He was unfailingly polite to the public and the defense bar, he added, but he was very selective about who he let into his private life.

''I wasn't one of those people. But even I could see that his daughter's death marked him. There was a sadness afterwards, even though he was extremely private in his grief.''

Concerned for victims

Mary LeClair, a Barnstable County commissioner, was one of those who had a close relationship with Rollins for more than three decades.

In the 1990s, the two helped create Children's Cove, a multidisciplinary agency that deals with crimes against children.

In a system copied throughout the state, nurses, social workers, police and therapists who serve on specially trained teams work from Children's Cove with victims of child abuse.

The program that best typified Rollins' character, LeClair said yesterday, was the victim support program.

Rollins pushed for the program after seeing an elderly couple struggle to put their lives back together after a home invasion.

''I remember him saying, 'The victims should not be left to feel like they were perpetrators, or did something wrong,''' she recalled yesterday. ''He was very human.

''He was never afraid to show his compassion, his fairness or his loyalty,'' she said. ''When you were a friend of Philip's, you were a friend for life.''

Karen Jeffrey can be reached at kjeffrey@capecodonline.com. Cynthia McCormick can be reached at cmccormick@capecodonline.com. Kevin Dennehy can be reached at kdennehy@capecodonline.com.

(Published: December 27, 2005)