Joseph Sabino Mistick: Lead with kindness as tribute to Gene Vittone

Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone died last Saturday at 61 after battling cancer. Gene always carried a little shirt pocket notebook in which he wrote the names of drug overdose victims in his county. If you were with him when he got the call, conversation stopped as he sadly added the most recent name to the list.

Gene had worked his way through Duquesne Law School’s night division as a paramedic, and he never stopped believing it was his job to save lives. As a three-term DA, Gene remembered each opioid death and, along with the families of the victims, he suffered each one, too.

Believing drug addiction is a public health problem more than a moral failure, Gene pioneered the establishment of a treatment center in the county jail at the beginning of the opioid crisis. And he led the charge statewide for the widespread use of Narcan and other overdose antidotes.

Gene embodied the prosecutor’s duty to seek justice, not necessarily convictions. He was unflinching when it came to prosecuting bad guys, but he knew in his bones that incarceration is not the right solution for all lawbreakers.

He knew society must decide who we are afraid of and who we are simply mad at — locking up those who scare us but finding less harsh treatment and rehabilitation for the others.

In Pennsylvania, we elect our prosecutors, and Gene ran as a Republican. But after the elections were over, you would be hard-pressed to guess what political party he belonged to. He was a public servant first.

As Washington County Common Pleas Court Judge Brandon Neuman said, “You never heard Republican or Democrat from Gene. He just wanted to do the right thing.”

And Steve Toprani, Gene’s Democratic predecessor in the DA’s office, said Republican Gene was his first hire. He reorganized the office and had “an immeasurable impact on Washington County — especially in his own successful terms as DA.”

Recently elected president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, Gene had been working on criminal justice reform proposals with Duquesne Law Professor John Rago. Three days before he died, still thinking of others, he texted Rago, “Was hoping to get more done as prez for you but that is in our Lord’s hands.”

Mike Jones, who gathered the tributes for Gene for the Observer- Reporter, wrote that “above all, the tributes about Vittone signaled his kindness and compassion.” The PDAA wrote, “His big heart and kind soul will be deeply missed. To many of us, he was simply the most decent person.”

Through all this, Gene was a family man who could always be found in the community, singing in church choirs and coaching youth sports, even after his own children had gotten older and moved on. He was the kind of guy who had life in perspective, who could be counted on to give good counsel when you feared that you had lost your own perspective.

At his funeral, tough prosecutors and cops and defense attorneys and politicians fought back tears. There is a sense that we have lost the best of us. But, if we remember how Gene led with kindness, and try to do that ourselves, this will be a better place.