Mary Tanner-Richter has been an Assistant District Attorney in the Office of the Albany County District Attorney since February 2001, and is currently the Chief of the Vehicular Crimes Unit. She has specialized in the area of vehicular crimes prosecution since 2004 and was instrumental in creating the Albany County District Attorney’s Vehicular Crimes Unit in 2008. Ms. Tanner-Richter has completed training in At Scene Motor Vehicle Collision Investigation, and is responsible for overseeing the prosecution of all felony alcohol/drug-related vehicular crimes, vehicular assaults and vehicular homicides in Albany County. She has participated in numerous trainings of various law enforcement officials and prosecutors across the State and has spoken on numerous occasions to high school parents and students, and college students. Additionally, Ms. Tanner-Richter has been involved in providing training to Bar and Tavern Owners throughout the Capital Region. Ms. Tanner-Richter is a member of the Albany District Attorney’s Office DWI Advisory Board, the Albany County STOP-DWI Program, and currently sits on the NYS GTSC Taskforce on Impaired Driving Enforcement Team.
Ms. Tanner-Richter received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, in 1994, and received her JD from Albany Law School in 1998. Prior to coming to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, Ms. Tanner-Richter was an Associate at the Buffalo Law Firm of Jaeckle, Fleischmann, & Mugel, LLP., assigned to the Litigation Department, from 1998-2000.
Ms. Tanner-Richter is the recipient of the 2011 Recognition of Excellence Award presented by NYS STOP DWI, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, in conjunction with the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee. Additionally, Albany County STOP DWI presented Mary with the Daniel S. Dwyer Memorial Award in December 2012 to honor her commitment to justice for victims of DWI crimes.
In 2015, Mary Tanner-Richter was named the National Traffic Safety Prosecutor of the Year by the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators (NAPC). Read about this accomplishment here.
In 2018, Bureau Chief Tanner-Richter was named as one of two Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors (TSRP) for the State of New York through the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee’s Highway Safety Program. The program is grant funded by the Federal Highway Safety Program under the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and addresses roadway safety through education and trainings across the State of New York, as well as nationwide. As a TSRP, Ms. Tanner-Richter is working in conjunction with members of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Traffic Law Center of the American Prosecutors Research Institute to keep New York prosecutors and police officers apprised of the latest traffic safety issues affecting the entire country.