As court liaison for the past two decades (covering the entire state for the past 17 years), Cucolo traversed Texas countless times to testify in hearings for determinant-sentenced youth.
Caseworkers and administrators prepared detailed files of a youth’s record while in custody in preparation for the hearings, where juvenile court judges weighed if a youth would be paroled or moved to an adult prison. It was Cucolo’s job to testify on behalf of the agency’s position.
“I represented the work everybody did and it was an honor to do that,” Cucolo said at his retirement reception at TJJD’s central office in Austin on June 29.
Earlier, Cucolo explained that his job placed him squarely in the middle of an emotional, high stakes event – the courtroom where a youth’s future was being decided. The news he delivered typically elated one side but dismayed the other. It required having empathy and understanding for both sides, he said.
Cucolo, in fact, had trained in how to conduct a Victim-Offender Mediation, which he incorporated into his graduate work while at the Giddings State School in the 1990s.
Teresa Stroud, former state programs director and Cucolo’s supervisor, praised Cucolo at his retirement celebration for his steadfastness and human approach, which seemed an extension of his philosophy of life. As a dedicated family man, Cucolo likely “saved the state thousands of dollars,” she joked, because he preferred to return home at night to his wife Lynn even when a distant trip meant he could have booked a hotel.
And though Cucolo was easygoing and fun to chat with, he took his job super seriously and was highly respected by the lawyers and judges he got to know over the years, Stroud said.
Stroud and Tami Coy, Leonard’s longtime colleague in state programs, said they were so often asked if they were calling from or testifying on behalf of “the office of Leonard Cucolo” that it became a standing joke.
Cucolo, who holds a master’s degree in social work from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, also had worked, for seven years, as a therapist to sex offenders at the Giddings State School. In 1997 he was promoted to program administrator, serving as court liaison and victim services coordinator for Giddings State School. In 1999, he moved to Central Office, to the Department of Sentenced Offender Disposition. As the court liaison for the entire agency, he provided testimony in more than 800 transfer/release hearings for determinate-sentence offenders in juvenile courts throughout the state.
“I am struggling to find the words that convey how much it was an honor and privilege to know you professionally,” he wrote to colleagues on email. “Over the years you have treated me with such respect and support through some very difficult times personally and professionally. So I will miss you all and the courtroom, where so much was accomplished.”
Cucolo and his wife plan to spend much of their retirement time at a home in Marble, Colorado near Aspen.
Photo: Leonard with TJJD colleagues and former colleagues, (l-r) Kim Buck, Teresa Stroud, Leonard Cucolo, Marie Murdoch and Tami Coy.