Attorney General Peter Kilmartin spent a recent morning with the students in Ruth Billings’ class at Arlington Elementary School. Although Kilmartin was invited in as a Reading Week guest, he spent a great deal of time fielding questions from the students.

“This is my second year reading to Ms. Billings’ class,” he said. “I enjoyed it so much last year I decided to return again this year.”

He asked the students if they knew what his job as Attorney General involved. After listening to their guesses, he answered the question for them.

“I am the person in charge of the office of prosecutors who prosecutes any person who commits a major crime. I work with the police; we gather evidence, we make sure we have all of the evidence and we make sure we have the right person,” Kilmartin said. “When we go to court, we ask a jury to listen to all of the evidence and to listen to the defense and a jury makes the decision if the person is guilty or not.”

Kilmartin also explained to the students that his office deals with any cases of anti-corruption in the government, such as bribes and kickbacks.

“Two hundred thirty-one people work at my office. We are the biggest in the state, like a big law firm,” he said. “We have the biggest amount of clients, approximately one million, because our office represents everybody in the state, and there are about one million people in Rhode Island.”

Kilmartin gave a real-life example of a case that the office has had to prosecute, citing the case involving the Cliff Walk in Newport.

“This case is a real-life case and it’s currently on appeal in the Supreme Court. There was a person who was injured when they were at the Cliff Walk in Newport. The jury agreed with us that it was that person’s fault for going off of the path and being on a part of the area where they should not have been. They fell into the water and they were injured,” he said.

Kilmartin explained that many cases, such as the Cliff Walk case, could go on for many years.

When asked what the hardest part of his job was, Kilmartin thought for a minute before answering.

“The hardest part of the job is also the best part of the job because every day I am unsure of what will be sitting on my desk that day,” he said. “But whenever a challenge comes in, we don’t have a choice, we have to deal with it and we have to do our best.”

Kilmartin talked to the students about making mistakes and learning from them.

“Everyone makes mistakes. It’s important that we learn from our mistakes. It’s okay to make a mistake if you’ve done everything you could and you made the best decision you could at the time, and it still turned out wrong. That’s a forgivable mistake,” he said.

Kilmartin also spoke to the students about his path from high school to becoming Attorney General for Rhode Island. After college, he became a police officer. When he was 32, he went to law school at night while working as an officer during the day, finishing school at 36.

“I tell you this because I want you to know that if you ever have a goal, no matter how old you are, go for that goal and never give up on it,” he said.

Kilmartin also spent 20 years as a state representative for Rhode Island before running for Attorney General.

When asked if he was sure he would win his new position, Attorney Kilmartin gave an honest answer.

“I thought I had a good chance, but I had to prepare myself that I might not win, I might not make the team, so to speak, and when that happens, you just go on and do something else that you love,” he said.

He spoke to the students about some of the skills they need for his job.

“Today 95 attorneys work for me. Every single one of them e-mails me a memo saying what they did this week, what’s coming up for next week, any pre- or post-trial memos. So there is a lot of reading in my job and I could not do my job without it. I also read for pleasure when I’m not working. Right now I am reading two books, one about JFK and one about Abraham Lincoln because I like history and I like biographies,” he said. “I also like to read fiction for fun, because when you read fiction you can be anything you want to be.”

Before he began reading aloud, he reminded the students about the importance of accountability.

“My job is to uphold the law. I made a promise to prosecute without fear, without favor and without ill will. It’s important that we be held accountable and make sure we haven’t violated anyone’s rights. We want to make sure an innocent person isn’t sent to jail.”

For his Reading Week read aloud, Attorney General Kilmartin read aloud from “The Sweetest Fig” by local author and illustrator Chris VanAllsburg. As he began the story, he gave the students a last piece of advice.

“I try to learn something new every day. Sometimes it’s fun; sometimes it’s unexpected,” he said. “I try to appreciate those who can do the things I might not necessarily be so good at. All of us have things we’re good at and things we’re not so good at, like Chris VanAllsburg. I have some of his prints in my house. He’s an excellent illustrator, and that’s something I’m not so good at.”