Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden

Kevin Hayden is currently serving as the Suffolk County District Attorney. Hayden grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, as well as Roxbury.

Hayden graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1986, where he was one of five African-American students in his class. Hayden says that his parents were role models in his life, encouraging him and letting him recognize that as a Black person, he was going to have to work harder than everyone else.

Hayden later went on to study English from Dartmouth College. He worked briefly for a public finance law firm on Wall Street before graduating from the Boston University Law School in 1995. 

Afterwards, Hayden worked at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, where he was an Assistant District Attorney for the Homicide Response Team, the Juvenile Unit, and for the Boston Municipal Court. He also was Chief of the Safe Neighborhood Initiative, where he focused on violence prevention in communities and for at-risk youth. 

Next, Hayden practiced law in the private sector, serving as a criminal defense attorney and bar advocate for the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

In 2015, Governor Charlie Baker appointed Hayden as chairman of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board. One of Hayden’s goals was to allow for public access to essential information. 

After Rachael Rollins resigned as the Suffolk County District Attorney, Governor Baker appointed Hayden to be the interim district attorney in 2022. Hayden won election for a full term as district attorney later that year. 

Hayden has made community outreach, diversion and prevention programs, and gun violence a major priority for his office. He has appointed more agents and detectives to work on the DA’s Crime Strategies Bureau to focus on prosecuting gun trafficking cases. In addition, he has worked to strengthen the community engagement team at the DA’s office. 

Furthermore, Hayden serves on the board of the Youth Options Unlimited, an organization that engages at-risk youth in workforce development.