NEW YORK – Greek-American lawyer, statesman, assistant public and district attorney Lew Evangelidis was elected Worcester County Sheriff on November 2, 2010. Sheriff Evangelidis has been committed to running the Sheriff’s Department of Worcester County based on the mission of professionalism and public safety. In the field of corrections he has significantly increased the hiring standards to the highest in Massachusetts and he is the only Sheriff in the State that does not accept political contributions from employees or their spouses, thus promoting more professionalism in the department and better working environment for all Worcester County Sheriff’s Office employees.
Sheriff Evangelidis is a proud and hard-working Greek-American, with strong professional and family values based on his rich Greek heritage. He talks fondly about his grand-parents, their path in life and how their decision to move to America changed their lives for the best. He considers himself an immigrant stating “I carry this feeling in my soul, we are immigrants, we came to this country, we were given incredible opportunities, but only because the risks our grandparents took in life.”
He attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics in 1983 and received his Juris Doctorate from Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia in 1987. He currently serves as Chairman of the Massachusetts Port Authority Board of Directors (Massport) as well as on the Worcester County Opioid Task Force and as a Corporator for the American Red Cross.
His previous public service includes serving as an Assistant State Attorney in Miami-Dade County, Florida in Janet Reno’s office and an Assistant District Attorney in Suffolk County, MA. He also served in the Massachusetts Legislature from 2002–2010, on the Joint Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Public Safety. Additionally, he practiced law for over 20 years as an Associate at Wausau Insurance Company and at the law firm of Pellegrini and Seeley.
Photo courtesy of Worcester County Sheriff’s Office
TNH had an opportunity to talk with Sheriff Evangelides, the only Greek-American Sheriff in USA as of now. His appointment to chair of the Massachusetts Port Authority Board of Directors proves that with hard work, keen eye, caring for the public good together with strong values, while following a valid educational program, a grandson of Greek immigrants from Leskoviki can really go places and help in any way possible his fellow citizens. And he is serving the public in the best way possible through his numerous appointments all over the country the last 20 plus years.
TNH: Sheriff Evangelides how was your upbringing as a Greek-American? Being of a Greek descent played any part in your success?
Evangelides: My grandparents come from (Northern) Epirus, I am sure you know where that is, from the border town of Leskoviki. My grandfather was born in 1900 and arrived in America in 1914, he worked in a mill in Massachusetts, soon after they had an arranged marriage with my grandmother back in the old country, in 1934 he went back, he married her and brought her to the United States and they lived in East Douglas located outside Worcester Mass., and they worked in the mills. My grandmother was pregnant when she arrived in the United States, she had three boys, my uncle Kosmas, my father George and my uncle Paul. My father was born in 1938, he married my mother which wasn’t Greek, by the way, they moved to Worcester where I was raised and the rest is history, I started my life and my career. But I’ve always been Greek, you know, having strong ties with our families, the appreciation of being Greek and our Greek heritage and appreciating the importance of what this country was offering to us as a people and as a nation. I am very proud of my Greek heritage, you know my last name is Greek and many Greeks are very supportive of me and I really honor my Greek tradition.
TNH: Have you ever visited the old country?
Evangelides: Oh yes, plus I spend a whole summer there back in 1981. I had family there, they were in Athens I stayed with them, I spend two months traveling throughout the country from Crete, through Peloponnesus all the way to Salonica. I never got to the only place I had family from the old world, my grandfather’s brother lived in Arta but I didn’t get to visit him. In two months, I visited the whole country it was my first time and I was 19-years-old. But I had my heart set on it, it was my first foreign trip and it was to Greece.
Head of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Port Authority
TNH: Sheriff Evangelides, you visited throughout the U.S. too, you studied in may institutions, got several degrees and at one point you even worked under Janet Reno (President Clinton’s Attorney General) as an assistant district attorney in Dade County, in Miami, Florida.
Evangelides: So, I grew up in Worcester, Mass., my father was a member of St. Spyridon Church and my mother -being Swedish- was congregational. I went to the University of Massachusetts and after that, I took one year before law school, I moved to California and worked there in construction, then moved to New York City and worked on the Commodities Exchange and then I went to the Law School in Philadelphia. After that, I wanted to get into the Criminal Justice so I got a job as an assistant state prosecutor in Dade County, in Miami, Fla. and worked for Janet Reno who soon became the Attorney General of the United States. I worked with her in that office in Miami and there I developed a best friend relationship with another fellow Greek from Worcester, Nick Moudios, who wasn’t only an attorney with me working for 20 plus years and now he is the clerk for Housing Court in Worcester. So, we had two great careers since we became best friends in Miami.
After that, I moved back to Mass. and I became an assistant state attorney, an assistant district attorney in Boston for another few years and then I had a private practice of 20 years and during that time I was elected to the state legislature and after that elected to be Sheriff of Worcester County.
I don’t know where I stand in the Greek community, but I am one of the first, if not the only, Greek sheriffs in the country.
Probably you know Fr. Dean Paleologos a very prominent figure in our Greek community, he was the pastor for St. Spyridon for 33 years, together with other members of our community were very supportive of my career, I always attended the Greek festival there, probably the largest one in Worcester which is probably the largest city in New England with a large Greek population.
You know, the Massport (Massachusetts Port Authority) appointment, is one of the highest appointment Governor Charlie Baker makes. The Board of Directors oversee all airports, Logan airport, Worcester airport, the port of Boston; they own an enormous amount of real estate along the Boston waterfront. It’s a very large, multi-million-dollar operation. The Governor makes one appointment per year and I was the first for 2015. After two years, the board chairman was re-appointed, after his term ended. Because we needed a new head on the board, I was elected chairman of Massport last September.
My good friend, the nationally renowned labor lawyer Dean Moschos told me that it was a good idea to be in touch with TNH. My appointment as a Chairman to the board of Directors at Massport made all of the people in Worcester County but especially the Greeks very proud.
And from my end, I am very proud of my heritage and for my current position.
Photo courtesy of Worcester County Sheriff’s Office
TNH: What it means for you to be a Greek-American today? In this day and age?
Evangelides: Well, we all come from somewhere else, but this country offered unbelievable opportunities. My grandmother who lived to be a 102 and passed 2 years ago, she came off that boat from Greece, she didn’t speak a word of English, she raised three children and her grandchildren like myself are reaping the benefits of her generation’s hard work, of her hard work. My grandmother comes from a family in which the youngest child had to stay home and take care of their parents and my grandma told me the story that she was asked to be wed three times, and the first to she had to decline, her father refused because they were local people. When my grandfather offered her hand in marriage, her father agreed because as she said: “I could come to America, to an opportunity for a better life.” I never forgot that I was the oldest grandchild, I carry this feeling in my soul, we are immigrants, we came to this country, we were given incredible opportunities, but only because the risks our grandparents took in life. For me, to be a Sheriff and the head of the board of Massachusetts Port Authority happen only because of the decisions my grandparents made 100 years ago.
Greeks, on the other hand, have the reputation of being extremely hard-working and proud people.
Photo courtesy of Worcester County Sheriff’s Office
The War on Drugs
TNH: Sheriff Evangelides tell us about your department’s work with the younger generation. You are going out to various schools personally, helping kids to quit drugs, isn’t it?.
Evangelides: I thank you so much for mentioning that. We developed many programs already, but me, as a Sheriff, I only see the end of the result. 90% of people incarcerated in America today have substance abuse problems. As a Sheriff, I hear it from my inmates, it seems that everyone tells the same story ‘I was in middle high school, I started using substances, I got addicted, I stole from people closest to me and they ended-up kicking me out and I ended-up breaking-in and committing crimes and going to jail. We need to get ahead of this curb and not to pick-up the pieces at the end. So, I’ve developed a program to go to middle and high schools and talk to the young people about the choices they have and the choices they make now and what this can do to their future; the biggest decision they make now is what drugs they will put in their mouth… And although everyone seems that it is different from the other one, the reality is that today there are millions and millions of addicts out there which they thought that they were different from the rest, but they are not, there are millions and millions of people that they are incarcerated today and they thought it will never happen to them but it did and I am very proud of that message and I do it personally and I am going pretty much in every middle and high school in Worcester county and by the end of last year we had over 300,000 students that I’ve talked to about this issue and in many schools I’ve gone back several times.
So, I believe the schools appreciate me helping with that message and I am proud that I am able to do this program and I think I am the only Sheriff I know that does it. I think every Sheriff should to do this program it is very important.
Worcester County Sheriff’s Office photo.
TNH: You show the kids and their parents that you care for them by doing this.
Evangelidis: Yes, we are on the frontline of this war and right now we are living in a society where drugs are getting everywhere and young people are very susceptible falling victims. You see, this is the problem today, young people don’t think they are real drugs, they think are medicine so they do not think twice before taking opioid medication because they think it’s not dangerous. And we have to let our young people know that all these drugs, from marijuana and on are gateways to darker places and so many people don’t see that, don’t think about it and they end up in a really bad place. I am just trying to make them think twice before they engage themselves. I was a teacher in Law School, so I love going to schools and talk to the kids. This is an incredible opportunity for me to continue teaching, I enjoy doing it and I will always be a teacher at heart and also, I enjoy doing it as Sheriff, so it blends two of my great passions in life, education and law enforcement.
TNH: Drugs are changing, their chemical composition is changing, they are getting cheaper and deadlier every day.
Evangelides: Absolutely, that is why we have to double-down and we have to treat this for what it is, which is a war on drugs. We need to treat this like it is a war, because what’s happening is it is inside our borders and our young people are dying; we are not focused hard enough to solve this problem and I agree totally that drugs today are much more potent that was 20 years ago, for example, methamphetamines mixing oxycodone and then people taking heroin and mixing the heroine now with synthetic products 100 times more potent and deadly than heroin, killing people every day in the streets of our cities, our towns and in our communities. I am just doing my part to stop this and to make people realize that it is so dangerous, you can ruin your life forever or die. It is sad and tragic and such a waste of young lives. So, we are trying to make this as our legacy, to dedicate our lives doing whatever we can to stop this. The same applies to drinking alcohol, as to use opioids, it is really a dangerous thing to start down that road. All I am trying to do is to educate people. I believe in preventive education. You know that I’ve been invited to some fifth-grade classes to talk about this message? The local police and schools have seen my message telling me that ‘Sheriff, we think that our fifth-grade students should hear what are you talking about’. I don’t think it is ever too early to start the conversation about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. As I said, it is never too early…
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