About Ryan
Ryan Matthew Carty was born and raised in the town of Stuyvesant. He graduated from Ichabod Crane High School in 2007. Thereafter, Ryan attended Syracuse University where he graduated in 2011 with his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy and minors in Communications and Rhetorical Studies.
Upon finishing his undergraduate degree, Ryan returned home to Columbia County and attended Albany Law School where he obtained his Juris Doctorate in 2014. While in law school, Ryan interned with the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office beginning in 2012.
Ryan also interned with Columbia County Court Judge Jonathan D. Nichols and then took an internship with the Attorney General’s Office in the Sex Offender Management Bureau. While interning with the Attorney General, Ryan was called back to the Columbia County District Attorney’s Office because of his desire to give back to the community in which he grew up.
Ryan was admitted to the New York State Bar in 2015, and began his career as an Assistant District Attorney under then Columbia County District Attorney Paul Czajka. As a young Assistant District Attorney, Ryan began working in all twenty one of the City, Town, and Village Justice Courts throughout Columbia County, prosecuting all crimes, including misdemeanor assaults, Driving While Intoxicated offenses, as well as property-related crimes.
Soon after, Ryan began presenting felony cases to the Columbia County Grand Jury, resulting in felony indictments to be filed with the Columbia County Courts. Indicted offenses included burglaries, possession and sale of narcotic drugs, grand larcenies and fraud cases. In 2016, Ryan tried his first felony case, where a Columbia County Jury returned a guilty verdict on forty-seven (47) counts of Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second. The jury determined the defendant possessed a cache of forty-seven fake credit cards.
Ryan then began working on long-term investigations and prosecutions of more serious crimes, including homicides and offenses against children. During his tenure as an Assistant District Attorney, Ryan tried numerous cases of Murder and Child Sexual Abuse.
DA Paul Czajka recently said of Ryan, "Having been around for a while, and having personally reorganized all of the district attorneys’ files dating back to the year the last courthouse burned down in 1906, I can say without fear of contradiction that Ryan Carty has prosecuted more murder cases and prosecuted more murder cases successfully than any other Columbia County District Attorney or assistant district attorney in the last 100-plus years."
In addition, as Deputy District Attorney, Carty sits on multiple task forces, including the Columbia County Regional Drug Treatment Court Team, Columbia County Domestic Terrorism Prevention, Assessment and Management Team and Columbia County Child Abuse Response Team. As a member of the Drug Treatment Court, Carty said he is committed to helping people struggling with substance abuse disorders and prosecuting drug dealers who take advantage of those suffering from the disease of addiction. He also supports the Veterans’ Court and was an early proponent of Mental Health Treatment Court.
In 2018 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation honored Ryan with a special services award for Outstanding Enforcement Efforts in Support of Environmental Conservation Police. “Special Services awards are presented to those outside the Division who have, by their actions, enhanced the ability of the Division to perform its mission.” In particular, Ryan received this award for the successful prosecution an assault of an ECON officer. “When Environmental Conservation Officer James Davey was gravely injured on November 29, 2016, the District Attorney’s Office immediately committed to supporting the Division of Law Enforcement in bringing the case to a successful conclusion.”
Ryan so far has been endorsed by two of the biggest police unions in the county: the New York State Police Benevolent Association, which represents about 1,200 members statewide, and Columbia County Sheriff’s Office Union. He was also unanimously endorsed by the Columbia County Corrections’ Union.
Ryan is the most experienced candidate, with a decade of prosecuting crimes locally in Columbia County. and looks to become Columbia County’s next District Attorney. “I am humbled to be nominated and considered for DA. I aspire to live up to the mantle of those who came before me, including my mentor, the outgoing District Attorney, Paul Czajka.”
