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The Trentonian, NJ
Feb 1 2015
Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor to head county bar association
By Isaac Avilucea
TRENTON >> Whenever Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Gasparian presents a
case to a jury, she often follows The Rule of Three, laying out
beginning, middle and end. She is fashioning a similar approach as new
president of the Mercer County Bar Association.
Her yearlong tenure will be defined by The Three Cs: collegiality,
community service and continuing legal education.
"I look at us as a family," Gasparian said of the association's 1,200
members. "We are often on the other side of each other. But in the
end, we are joined by a profession and the ethics that guide our
profession."
The association's blood-like bond was evident when colleague, fellow
bar member and Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor John Carbonara
suffered a devastating stroke in November.
The association raised nearly $13,000 to help his family defray
medical costs. Carbonara is undergoing therapy and slowly recovering.
The hope is he'll be able to return to work sometime in the future.
"It's been a blow," Gasparian said of losing Carbonara, a bulldog of
an attorney who, along with Gasparian's husband, Brian McCauley,
helped prosecute several Bloods gangsters who orchestrated the
infamous Myspace murder of 20-year-old Arrell Bell.
To that end, the association knows what it's getting in Gasparian, a
graduate of Rutgers School of Law, a 16-year veteran of the county
prosecutor's office and a committed bar member who worked herself up
the ranks since she joined in 1997 as a law clerk.
She served two four-year terms as a trustee before becoming the first
female prosecutor and ninth woman to hold the position, replacing
immediate past president and former Rutgers classmate, Dorothy
"Dottie" Bolinsky, of Drinker Biddle & Reath in Princeton.
Gasparian's parents, Armenian immigrants who came to the U.S. in their
late teens, were particularly proud of their daughter's distinction as
the association's first Armenian president.
Garparian's goals are lofty. They include strengthening the
association's relationship with the judiciary, expanding membership
and increasing the organization's position as a community stakeholder.
She has plans for "Breakfast with the Bench," an hourlong event for
attorneys to get to know judges and staff in the family, civil and
criminal divisions.
The organization will continue to work closely with the Trenton Area
Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels and Volunteer Lawyers CARE, which offers
free legal consultation.
The organization already sponsors professional development seminars
and a daylong event to help attorneys get mandatory continuing
education credits. But Gasparian hopes to drive down costs of events
to encourage membership and participation among younger attorneys.
Gasparian's bend toward public service is a theme in her career. She
could have ventured into the lucrative path of private practice but
has remained at the same post for the duration of her legal career.
"The system needs to have people who believe in the system for the
system to work, and I'm one of those people," she said. "I may never
have a beach house, but I consider it rewarding."
While with the county prosecutor's office, she has spent more than
five years in the homicide unit and was cross-designated to the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
She worked with Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Askin in 2007 to
secure the convictions of several reputed members of the Bounty Hunter
set of the Bloods street gang involved in a massive drug ring in
Trenton.
Recently, her poignant remarks at at the sentencing of William
Marshall captured the family of Ruschell Fireall's deep sense of
betrayal. Marshall was convicted of murder after he ran his
ex-girlfriend off the road and gunned her down in front of her family
in November 2012.
"If she wasn't going to be with him, she wasn't going to be," Gasparian said.
Gasparian's line of work could callous the softest of souls. But she
said there's a difference between being tough and unflinching.
"You are dealing with people who may have experienced the worst thing
in their life," she said. "You have to be analytic and clinical but
caring and compassionate. You can watch it on TV. But when you're
inside the belly of the beast, when it's a real situation, it's such
tragedy."
Gasparian hopes the stint as president is as fulfilling.
"I want it to be a great year," she said, "and I'm confident it will be."
http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150131/assistant-mercer-county-prosecutor-to-head-county-bar-association
From: A. Papazian
Feb 1 2015
Assistant Mercer County Prosecutor to head county bar association
By Isaac Avilucea
TRENTON >> Whenever Assistant Prosecutor Michelle Gasparian presents a
case to a jury, she often follows The Rule of Three, laying out
beginning, middle and end. She is fashioning a similar approach as new
president of the Mercer County Bar Association.
Her yearlong tenure will be defined by The Three Cs: collegiality,
community service and continuing legal education.
"I look at us as a family," Gasparian said of the association's 1,200
members. "We are often on the other side of each other. But in the
end, we are joined by a profession and the ethics that guide our
profession."
The association's blood-like bond was evident when colleague, fellow
bar member and Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor John Carbonara
suffered a devastating stroke in November.
The association raised nearly $13,000 to help his family defray
medical costs. Carbonara is undergoing therapy and slowly recovering.
The hope is he'll be able to return to work sometime in the future.
"It's been a blow," Gasparian said of losing Carbonara, a bulldog of
an attorney who, along with Gasparian's husband, Brian McCauley,
helped prosecute several Bloods gangsters who orchestrated the
infamous Myspace murder of 20-year-old Arrell Bell.
To that end, the association knows what it's getting in Gasparian, a
graduate of Rutgers School of Law, a 16-year veteran of the county
prosecutor's office and a committed bar member who worked herself up
the ranks since she joined in 1997 as a law clerk.
She served two four-year terms as a trustee before becoming the first
female prosecutor and ninth woman to hold the position, replacing
immediate past president and former Rutgers classmate, Dorothy
"Dottie" Bolinsky, of Drinker Biddle & Reath in Princeton.
Gasparian's parents, Armenian immigrants who came to the U.S. in their
late teens, were particularly proud of their daughter's distinction as
the association's first Armenian president.
Garparian's goals are lofty. They include strengthening the
association's relationship with the judiciary, expanding membership
and increasing the organization's position as a community stakeholder.
She has plans for "Breakfast with the Bench," an hourlong event for
attorneys to get to know judges and staff in the family, civil and
criminal divisions.
The organization will continue to work closely with the Trenton Area
Soup Kitchen, Meals on Wheels and Volunteer Lawyers CARE, which offers
free legal consultation.
The organization already sponsors professional development seminars
and a daylong event to help attorneys get mandatory continuing
education credits. But Gasparian hopes to drive down costs of events
to encourage membership and participation among younger attorneys.
Gasparian's bend toward public service is a theme in her career. She
could have ventured into the lucrative path of private practice but
has remained at the same post for the duration of her legal career.
"The system needs to have people who believe in the system for the
system to work, and I'm one of those people," she said. "I may never
have a beach house, but I consider it rewarding."
While with the county prosecutor's office, she has spent more than
five years in the homicide unit and was cross-designated to the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
She worked with Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Askin in 2007 to
secure the convictions of several reputed members of the Bounty Hunter
set of the Bloods street gang involved in a massive drug ring in
Trenton.
Recently, her poignant remarks at at the sentencing of William
Marshall captured the family of Ruschell Fireall's deep sense of
betrayal. Marshall was convicted of murder after he ran his
ex-girlfriend off the road and gunned her down in front of her family
in November 2012.
"If she wasn't going to be with him, she wasn't going to be," Gasparian said.
Gasparian's line of work could callous the softest of souls. But she
said there's a difference between being tough and unflinching.
"You are dealing with people who may have experienced the worst thing
in their life," she said. "You have to be analytic and clinical but
caring and compassionate. You can watch it on TV. But when you're
inside the belly of the beast, when it's a real situation, it's such
tragedy."
Gasparian hopes the stint as president is as fulfilling.
"I want it to be a great year," she said, "and I'm confident it will be."
http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20150131/assistant-mercer-county-prosecutor-to-head-county-bar-association
From: A. Papazian