A veteran Ulster County prosecutor who pioneered significant reforms to the way Kingston police deal with domestic violence cases has stepped into a new management position at the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office.

Last week, DA Dave Clegg announced that Elizabeth Culmone-Mills would become the office’s first Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney. Culmone-Mills has been with the District Attorney’s Office since 2007 and formerly headed the agency’s Special Victims Unit.

She was also the driving force behind an innovative anti-domestic violence program. The Intimate Partner Violence Initiative is an evidence-based program developed at John Jay College of Criminal Justice that uses a combination of offers of counseling and other assistance — and escalating legal sanctions — to change the behavior of people who are violent towards their partners. Culmone-Mills established the IPVI task force in 2017 in partnership with the Kingston Police Department. It has since expanded to cover Saugerties and New Paltz and will soon go countywide with help from the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office. The program is credited with a 36 percent reduction in domestic incident reports filed in Kingston.

“ADA Culmone-Mills goes above and beyond to keep victims safe and hold offenders accountable,” said KPD Chief Egidio Tinti in a press release announcing the promotion. “Her efforts have really changed how we respond to domestic and intimate partner violence.”

In her new role, Culmone-Mills will serve as the office’s third in command behind Chief Assistant DA Emmanuel Nneji. In that capacity, she will take on a management role, supervising the office’s bureau chiefs and managing day-to-day operations. Clegg said Culmone-Mills’ expertise with technology would be a particular asset while her management role would take some of the burden off Nneji, whose current workload includes prosecuting four pending murder cases.

“It is such a big support for the office to have her in this position,” said Clegg. “In every aspect of the job she is just totally accomplished.”

Culmone-Mills’ appointment came after the Ulster County Legislature voted to approve the creation of the deputy chief assistant position. It’s the latest effort to add resources to the DA’s Office as it struggles to cope with a number of challenges, including an exodus of experienced prosecutors, a backlog of cases leftover from the Covid-19 shutdown and new rules of evidence which greatly reduced the timeframe for prosecutors to turn over discovery evidence to defense attorneys.

In addition to funding the new management post, county lawmakers also authorized the formation of an entire bureau within the office dedicated to the discovery process. Another recently added position — Justice Court and Diversion Unit Chief — will be responsible for training and supervising part-time assistant DA’s who handle arraignments and misdemeanor charges in Kingston City Court and the county’s town and village courts.