When President Barack Obama signed sweeping hate crimes legislation into law at a ceremony last month, new Northern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach was there – a sign of the Cleveland prosecutor’s rising influence in civil rights enforcement.
Northern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach speaks at his swearing in ceremony on Oct. 26. (DOJ)
Dettelbach, who was confirmed by the Senate in September, is the new chair of the civil rights subcommittee of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys.
The AGAC advises Attorney General Eric Holder on policy and law enforcement issues. And civil rights is a top priority of the Obama administration.
At his Oct. 26 investiture ceremony, Dettelbach made clear his commitment to enforcing anti-discrimination laws by invoking Tom Perez, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
“We can and must follow Tom Perez’s example of relentless dedication to civil rights, because our citizens must understand that the laws we enforce apply equally to all, not just some,” he said in prepared remarks.
Dettelbach has a long history working on civil rights issues. He successfully prosecuted several civil rights cases during his almost two decades as a federal prosecutor at U.S. Attorney’s offices in Cleveland and Maryland and at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.
He told Main Justice in a recent interview that among his office’s “usual assortment of prosecutorial plaques and knickknacks” are two awards from former Attorney General Janet Reno that he received when he was an attorney in the DOJ Civil Rights Division.
One plaque honors Dettelbach’s work on a case that involved an Indian woman who was brought to Miami as a slave. She endured regular beatings over the course of seven months and was even branded with an iron, according to Dettelbach.
Another award commemorates the prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members who tried to undermine the integration of housing projects in Vidor, Texas.
“He is deeply committed to fighting for crime victims and to holding those who commit crimes, even the most powerful, accountable,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Mythili Raman, who worked with Dettelbach in the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But Dettelbach’s experience extends beyond civil rights cases.
He was a part of the organized crime and corruption strike force during his time as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Cleveland. As deputy chief of the Greenbelt branch of the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, he prosecuted fraud cases. Dettelbach also worked as a Senate Judiciary Committee counsel to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and most recently as a partner in the Cleveland office of law firm Baker & Hostetler.
“He brings a good, well-rounded experience to the table,” said former Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford, who once supervised Dettelbach in the Cleveland U.S. Attorney’s office.
Dettelbach said while his diverse experience has prepared him to be U.S. Attorney, the job presents new challenges.
“There is no typical day,” Dettelbach said. “That’s what makes the job both so rewarding and so challenging. On any day, you are doing a mixture of managing the cases and the investigations that the assistants and agents are doing in the office, representing the office in the community and representing the office within the Department of Justice as a whole.”
The U.S. Attorney said taking over the reins of the Northern District office is “like getting on a train that going 100 miles per hour.”
“Even though I had worked here as an Assistant, it’s a much different perspective being the U.S. Attorney than it is being an Assistant,” he said.
His office is working a number of major prosecutions including a corruption scandal in Cuyahoga County and a civil rights case involving a white supremacist who mailed a noose to an Ohio chapter of the NAACP.
Dettelbach said terrorism will remain his office’s top priority, even as he puts a renewed focus on civil rights enforcement and financial fraud.
The U.S. Attorney said he is meeting with all of the office’s Assistant U.S. Attorneys to discuss his plans and hear their suggestions.
Dettelbach said his new responsibilities have cut into his personal time with his wife and two children. He works a lot and is “not allowed to talk to my wife about it,” he said.
But long hours are nothing new for Dettelbach, said Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein. Dettelbach often worked nights and weekends as the deputy chief of the Greenbelt branch office, he recalled.
“He is a guy who really enjoys working for DOJ,” Rosenstein said.
Dettelbach said his work as a federal prosecutor has “made me the happiest.”
“I have to say one of the great things about this job is you can even explain to a four- and six-year-old the importance of what we do. And that to me is a great thing that Assistant U.S. Attorneys get to do and U.S. Attorneys get to do,” Dettelbach said. “Even at the most basic level, people can understand what you’re doing is something that is important in your community.”
This post has been corrected from an earlier version.
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U.S. Attorney of Maryland Rod Rosenstein, a Bush holdover, has lost his best prosecutors to Main Justice, reports the Washington Post.
The new deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division Jason Weinstein had previously been working in the federal prosecutor’s Baltimore office as the chief of violent crimes. Another loss has been Mythili Raman, who left her job as Rosenstein’s appellate chief to become chief of staff for Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny Breuer. Raman’s successor is Michael Leotta, a prosecutor in the fraud and corruption unit in Baltimore; Leotta is one of the prosecutors in the case of former lobbyist and John Abramoff associate Kevin Ring. The final loss was James Trusty, now deputy chief of the national gang unit at Main Justice. Trusty had previously been the deputy chief of Rosenstein’s Greenbelt office and overseen the prosecution of the MS-13 gang and has been succeeded by Michael Pauzé, who was a prosecutor in the case of former Prince George’s schools chief Andre Hornsby.
But it seems that while Rosenstein’s best prosecutors have left, Rosenstein will stay, for good.
In the process of tapping members of Rosenstein’s staff to move up to Main Justice, Breuer expressed his confidence in Rosenstein, “Rod has cultivated an incredible roster of attorneys, and, knowing Rod, I expect he’ll continue to do just that.”
Most importantly, Maryland’s Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin have expressed support for Rosenstein in his current post. But they did not support the 2007 nomination of Rosenstein for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The Senators have finally found someone to fill the seat, which has been vacant for almost nine years, Andre Davis. Davis has already been nominated by President Obama, but as we reported last week, his nomination has been delayed for the time being.
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