After spending nearly seven years in the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office, assistant district attorney Samuel “S.J.” Finnessey, Jr. will be moving on to serve the state Education Department in Albany.

Finnessey has taken a post with the department's Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability, and is one of two education department attorneys charged with prosecuting cases statewide against teachers and school administrators who violate the terms of their state-issued license.

Before attending law school Finnessey was a police officer in the Town of Sunderland in Massachusetts. He was appointed assistant district attorney in 2001 by former Cayuga County District Attorney James B. Vargason and served briefly under current DA Jon Budelmann.

“It was an absolute honor to serve the citizens of Cayuga County as a prosecutor,” he said in a news release. My passion has always been about justice, doing what is right, fighting crime and serving the public. It was hard to choose to leave my job as a police officer to go to law school, and it was just as hard to choose to leave my job as an assistant district attorney because I am extremely passionate about fighting crime and prosecuting criminals who abuse women and children.“