WOBURN — Having served 13 years as Middlesex District Attorney, Marian Ryan is now hoping to secure her fourth four-year term, running on a campaign centered on experience and representation.
Ryan, who was appointed to the role by former governor Deval Patrick in 2013, began her career in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office as an intern. She later worked her way up to general counsel, before taking over as district attorney.
Throughout her tenure as district attorney, Ryan has experienced the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, criminal justice reforms following the murder of George Floyd and changes in federal policy under both the first and second Trump administrations.
With the primary election just weeks away on Sept. 1, Ryan argues that her experience is particularly important as the office confronts changing challenges involving public safety, civil rights violations, criminal justice reform and emerging technology.
“Experience has never mattered more than it does right now,” Ryan told WestfordCAT in an interview. “I bring that experience to this job.”
Ryan pointed to Middlesex County’s ranking as one of the safest heavily-populated counties in the U.S. as an example of her proven experience as district attorney.
“We (Middlesex County) are literally one quarter of Massachusetts — we have 54 cities and towns, 21 colleges and universities and 1.8 million people — we are diverse in every possible way in terms of ethnicity, languages spoken, economic realities, all of that,” Ryan said. “It really kind of makes us a social laboratory to be able to work on so many problems. But our core mission is protecting people’s safety.
Ryan said keeping the county safe is not only important for the well-being of its residents, but also allows her office to devote much of its state-allocated budget to other initiatives outside criminal prosecution, such as working on prevention, intervention and outreach.
This has included creating a cold case unit, a conviction integrity unit, programs addressing artificial intelligence and youth outreach efforts — the latter which has included initiatives such as neurodivergent swim programs for kids. She also pointed to her office’s opioid task force which she established 14 years ago in partnership with former state senator Eileen Donoghue. This task force brings together law enforcement, medical professionals, social service providers, community activists and people in recovery.
Ryan has also made criminal justice reform a significant part of her tenure, including juvenile diversion programs and the elimination of cash bail for low-level, nonviolent offenses.
She said those reforms were driven by an emphasis on victims and called her office “a victim-centered office.” She cites a personal experience earlier in her career where she was a victim of a violent crime as having a major influence on these initiatives.
“When I was beginning my career as an assistant district attorney, my then law school boyfriend — who was also an assistant district attorney — and I were the victims of an armed robbery that went terribly wrong — and he was killed in that armed robbery,” Ryan said. “So there is perhaps no other district attorney in the country who is more intimately familiar with what it means to be the victim of a crime.”
Additionally, Ryan points to her status as Massachusetts’ only female district attorney as another reason why she relates to crime victims.
“We have eleven district attorneys across the Commonwealth and I have wonderful colleagues, but I’m the only woman who has the opportunity to be in this role,” Ryan said. “When you think about who the majority of our victims are — issues of domestic violence, sexual violence, women’s reproductive health issues — mine is a voice that needs to be in that conversation.”
Despite all these initiatives carried out by Ryan during her tenure, she said changes in the federal government under President Donald Trump have made her job more difficult.
“There used to be so many pieces of this job that we took for granted,” Ryan said. “When a judge gave an order you followed that order. We would debate things in court, we might argue both sides of that, but we accepted what the court did. In the last eight to ten years that has really changed. The attack on the rule of law has been very deep.”
This included multiple interruptions of criminal trials in 2018 when Ryan said federal immigration officials removed defendants from courtrooms during ongoing trials, making it impossible for the court to continue. She said these incidents prevented her office from carrying out its duties and prompted her to build a coalition that filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston.
Responding to her opponent’s criticism
Ryan will face former Middlesex Assistant District Attorney David Solet in the Democratic primary election on Sept. 1. The winner of the primary will likely decide the race, given that there are no Republicans running in the general election.
Solet has sought to make public safety and what he describes as “shortcomings” in Ryan’s record central issues in his campaign.
One issue which Solet has criticized Ryan on is what he calls a “drugged-driving crisis”
In a press release, Solet cited publicly available court data showing 71% of operating under the influence of drug cases prosecuted in Middlesex County between 2020 and 2024 were dismissed. He also said prosecutors secured convictions in only two of 43 cases that went to trial.
“Those numbers should concern every resident of Middlesex County,” Solet said. “When prosecutors lose 41 out of 43 trials involving drugged driving, that tells us something is wrong.”
Solet argues that Ryan failed to advocate strongly for changes to Massachusetts law, including legislation known as the Trooper Thomas Clardy Law, which was proposed to improve tools available to law enforcement and prosecutors investigating drug-impaired driving.
“Being District Attorney isn’t about sitting by passively and accepting failure,” Solet said. “It’s about identifying problems, pursuing solutions, and protecting the public.”
Ryan told WestfordCAT that she acknowledges drugged driving is a significant issue but said prosecutors face limitations under current Massachusetts law and drug-testing technology.
She explained that, unlike alcohol, the presence of THC in a person’s system does not necessarily establish when marijuana was consumed or whether the person was impaired while driving.
“You could have used it last Wednesday and you’re perfectly fine to be driving today,” Ryan said.
Ryan also defended her legislative record. She said she files between 20 and 25 pieces of legislation during each two-year legislative session and actively works on those proposals.
“I am unquestionably the district attorney in Massachusetts who has the largest and most active legislative agenda,” she said.
Ryan said she does not publicly weigh in on every piece of legislation, but said she has not opposed the drugged-driving legislation at issue.
Meanwhile, Solet has pledged to work with law enforcement officials, lawmakers, prosecutors and public safety advocates to pursue changes to the state’s drugged-driving laws.
Solet also criticized Ryan over the prosecution of illegal gun trafficking, arguing that her office has not devoted sufficient resources to tracing firearms seized by police back to their sources.
In a campaign press release, Solet cited what he described as a gap between the 100 to 200 illegally obtained firearms that state and local police have seized annually in Middlesex County since 2020 and what he characterized as a “handful” of convictions involving out-of-state gun traffickers.
“When it comes to protecting our communities from illegal gun violence, we can and should do more — I will,” Solet said.
Solet proposed creating a dedicated Crime Gun Unit within the district attorney’s office to investigate and prosecute gun trafficking networks.
“Disrupting these criminal networks requires focused, sustained investigative effort,” Solet said. “It requires treating gun crime as a priority, not an afterthought.”
Ryan rejected the idea that the prosecution of illegal firearms can simply be approached in the same manner as drug trafficking.
She said her office does prosecute gun trafficking cases and noted that Massachusetts’ strict gun laws can result in mandatory prison sentences for illegal firearm possession.
Ryan said prosecutors sometimes cannot determine whether a particular illegally possessed firearm is connected to a larger trafficking network.
“Finding out where one particular gun comes from doesn’t tell you that it’s part of a trafficking piece,” Ryan said.
She reiterated that Middlesex County remains a relatively safe county overall, including when it comes to firearms.
For Ryan, the race ultimately comes back to the experience she has accumulated during more than a decade as district attorney and her unique position as someone who has both prosecuted and been the victim of crime.
“These are uncharted times,” Ryan said. “This is a place where experience really does matter.”
The Democratic primary is scheduled for Sept. 1. The winner will advance to the general election for Middlesex County district attorney.
