Veteran homicide prosecutor Strelzin may be headed back to AG's office
Veteran homicide prosecutor Jeffery Strelzin could soon be returning to the Attorney General's Office.
Attorney General John Formella is asking the Executive Council to approve hiring Strelzin as an assistant attorney general, effective upon approval or June 13, whichever comes first.
The request submitted by James Boffetti — the deputy New Hampshire attorney general, on behalf of Formella — appears on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting of the Governor and Executive Council, set for 10 a.m. at the State House.
Strelzin previously worked for the Attorney General's Office for 22 years before departing in 2023 for a post in the U.S. Attorney's Office working for Jane Young, who resigned her position on Jan. 17.
Strelzin was paid $121,000 as an associate attorney general in 2022, according to salary information on the New Hampshire website. The new position would pay an annual salary of $123,000.
The new position would be for a term ending Sept. 30, 2025.
For 22 years, Strelzin handled some of the state's biggest homicide prosecutions.
Cases like the murder of 3-year-old Brielle 'just hit harder,' investigators say
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin speaks to the media following a previous court hearing for Katlyn Marin, who was recently convicted of murdering her daughter, Brielle Gage.
He prosecuted Manchester cop killer Michael Addison, who remains on death row since his 2008 sentence. Other prosecutions include the 2009 thrill-killing of Kimberly Cates in Mont Vernon in front of her daughter; the torture-murders of young men in the mid-2000s by Sheila Labarre; the 2003 murder of the Gehring children by their father; and the exhaustive, groundbreaking investigation involving the Bear Brook cold-case murders.
Strelzin oversaw the Division of Public Protection, which involved the criminal bureau, consumer protection, environmental protection, Medicaid fraud, the Drug Task Force, prosecution of public officials and the YDC prosecution.
Strelzin, a Concord resident, earned his Associate of Science in Business Administration from New Hampshire Technical Institute in 1985, Bachelor of Science in Management from Keene State College in 1986, and his Juris Doctorate from the University of New Hampshire School of Law (formerly the Franklin Pierce Law Center) in 1991.
After graduating law school, he was a judicial clerk for the New Hampshire Superior Court from 1991 to 1993. In 1993, he joined Bossie, Kelly, Hodes & Buckley, P.A., where he practiced as an associate attorney focused primarily on criminal defense.
He joined the Merrimack County Attorney's Office in 1997, where he prosecuted a variety of criminal cases in the circuit and superior courts. He began a 22-year career at the New Hampshire Department of Justice in 2001 — the first three years as an attorney and assistant attorney general in the Criminal Justice Bureau. He was promoted to senior assistant attorney general and chief of the Homicide Unit in 2004.
In 2018, Strelzin was promoted to associate attorney general and director of the Division of Public Protection, where he was responsible for overseeing the work of the Criminal Justice Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, and Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau.
In his request, Formella writes that if Strelzin's appointment is approved he will be 'responsible for establishing and implementing a state-wide training program for prosecutors as well as developing and conducting training on relevant topics.'
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And most of them — around 92% — are working, caregiving, attending school or disabled. Earlier estimates of the budget bill from the Congressional Budget Office found that about 5 million people stand to lose coverage. A KFF tracking poll conducted in May found that the enrollees come from across the political spectrum. About one-fourth are Republicans; roughly one-third are Democrats. The poll found that about 7 in 10 adults are worried that federal spending reductions on Medicaid will lead to more uninsured people and would strain health care providers in their area. About half said they were worried reductions would hurt the ability of them or their family to get and pay for health care. Amaya Diana, an analyst at KFF, points to work requirements launched in Arkansas and Georgia as keeping people off Medicaid without increasing employment. Amber Bellazaire, a policy analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy, said the process to verify that Medicaid enrollees meet the work requirements could be a key reason people would be denied or lose eligibility. 'Massive coverage losses just due to an administrative burden rather than ineligibility is a significant concern,' she said. One KFF poll respondent, Virginia Bell, a retiree in Starkville, Mississippi, said she's seen sick family members struggle to get onto Medicaid, including one who died recently without coverage. She said she doesn't mind a work requirement for those who are able — but worries about how that would be sorted out. 'It's kind of hard to determine who needs it and who doesn't need it,' she said. Some people don't if they might lose coverage with a work requirement Lexy Mealing, 54 of Westbury, New York, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries, said she fears she may lose the medical benefits she has come to rely on, though people with 'serious or complex' medical conditions could be granted exceptions. She now works about 15 hours a week in 'gig' jobs but isn't sure she can work more as she deals with the physical and mental toll of the cancer. Mealing, who used to work as a medical receptionist in a pediatric neurosurgeon's office before her diagnosis and now volunteers for the American Cancer Society, went on Medicaid after going on short-term disability. 'I can't even imagine going through treatments right now and surgeries and the uncertainty of just not being able to work and not have health insurance,' she said. Felix White, who has Type I diabetes, first qualified for Medicaid after losing his job as a computer programmer several years ago. The Oreland, Pennsylvania, man has been looking for a job, but finds that at 61, it's hard to land one. Medicaid, meanwhile, pays for a continuous glucose monitor and insulin and funded foot surgeries last year, including one that kept him in the hospital for 12 days. 'There's no way I could have afforded that,' he said. 'I would have lost my foot and probably died.' ___ Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut contributed to this article.
