On Friday morning, October 16, the NAFUSA conference will feature a two hour panel discussion on “Issues in 21st Century Policing: Protecting Civil Rights and Public Safety.”
Carrie Johnson
It will be moderated by Carrie Johnson, the Justice Correspondent for the Washington Desk of NPR. Prior to joining NPR, Johnson worked at the Washington Post for 10 years and has years of experience closely observing the Justice Department.
Panel members will include NAFUSA member Chuck Rosenberg, the Acting Administrator of the DEA and former chief of staff and senior counselor to FBI Director James Comey; Chiragg Bains, senior counsel to the AAG, Civil Rights Division at DOJ and a member of the team that investigated the Ferguson Police Department; NAFUSA member Jenny Durkan, who served as the U.S. Attorney for the WD of Washington (2009-2014) whose consent degree with the Seattle Police Department has been the model for several jurisdictions; Chief David Brown of the Dallas Police Department; Jennifer Joyce, the Circuit Attorney for the City of St. Louis; and Professor Michael White of Arizona State University, the leading expert on body cameras.
With such an array of experts on contemporary policing issues, and with differing perspectives from federal and local authorities, it should be a stimulating and informative presentation. Full bios of panelists are posted on the “conferences” link on the home page.
Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.
Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Bart Daniel. Its members included Doug Jones, Ed Dowd, Kent Alexander, Don Washington, Hal Hardin, Sharon Zealey, and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to two AUSAs from separate districts. Elizabeth Geddes, from the Eastern District of New York, was nominated by then United States Attorney and now Attorney General Loretta Lynch, for a variety of investigations and prosecutions resulting in the near complete dismantlement of the Colombo crime family. Joan Hartman, from the Eastern District of Michigan, was nominated by United States Attorney Barbara McQuade, for her exceptional accomplishments in transforming the way the Department of Justice fights health care fraud. The committee and board of directors decided both nominees were worthy of the Bradford Award and declared them each 2015 winners.
Liz Geddes
Elizabeth Geddes is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York and is currently the chief of the Organized Crime and Gangs section in the EDNY. In that role, she oversees the Office’s criminal prosecutions of members and associates of organized groups who commit crimes including racketeering, murder, extortion, narcotics trafficking, fraud, and sex trafficking. Prior to her current assignment, she served as deputy chief of the General Crimes section and acting deputy chief of the Organized Crime and Racketeering section. Geddes clerked for the Honorable Frederic Block of the Eastern District of New York. She graduated University of Notre Dame in 1997 and graduated Georgetown University Law Center magna cum laude in 2004.
Geddes has distinguished herself through her work in a variety of investigations and prosecutions resulting in the near complete dismantlement of the Colombo crime family, a violent criminal enterprise that had once functioned as one of the five powerful La Cosa Nostra crime families. Numerous Colombo family members have been held accountable for multiple murders including the 1997 murder of New York City Police Officer Ralph Dols, a murder that long remained unsolved.
Joan Hartman
Joan E. Hartman is an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan and the civil health care fraud case coordinator for that district. Hartman has pioneered the use of data to identify and rank potential health care fraud targets nationwide and to measure the effectiveness of prosecutorial efforts in establishing deterrence and reducing overall Medicare costs by district. Hartman conducts nationwide and district-level training for prosecutors and agents on making the most effective use of data in developing targets and cases. Hartman has previously received a Director’s Award and a Civil Division Special Commendation award for her work in the data analytics area. In June 2015, Hartman also received a Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General’s Award for Excellence as part of the team that handled the investigation and prosecution of oncologist Farid Fata.
Prior to moving to Michigan, Hartman was an Assistant Director in the Civil Frauds section of the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. She handled trial and appellate matters arising under the False Claims Act and the civil conflict of interest laws, including briefing several cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. She also handled a broad range of other matters ranging from a trial in the Hague defending against Iran’s claim that the United States breached the Algiers Accords, to a Ninth Circuit appeal establishing the legal status of the Northern Mariana Islands. Hartman is also the author of several Monographs on legal issues that are widely used within the Department of Justice and client agencies. Hartman is a graduate of Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and winner of the Francis Wayland Prize for litigation skills, and she received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University summa cum laude. Hartman lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her husband, John Rothchild, who is Associate Professor of Law at Wayne State Law School, and her two children, Julia, a senior at Yale, and Daniel, a junior at Harvard.
The other nominees were:
Deborah A. Griffin, SD Alabama, nominated by United States Attorney Kenyen R. Brown, for her investigation and prosecution of ZenBio, a producer of synthetic cannabinoid.
James T. Lacy, District of Arizona, nominated by United States Attorney John Leonardo, for his work in rooting out and prosecuting corruption, fraud, and drug traffickers.
Kirk E. Sherrif, ED of California, nominated by United States Attorney Ben Wagner, for his successful prosecution of Crisp & Cole, a high profile mortgage brokerage and real estate firm.
Todd W. Robinson, SD of California, nominated by United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy, for his investigation and prosecution of the Luz Verde RICO case, a violent cross-border criminal enterprise.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, SD of Florida, nominated by United States Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer, for his prosecution of several Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) level cases.
William L. McKinnon, Jr., ND of Georgia, nominated by United States Attorney John A. Horn, for his work in fighting public corruption.
Charles J. Williams, ND of Iowa, nominated by United States Attorney Kevin W. Techau, for his investigation and prosecution of an Indian Country double homicide case.
Matthew G. Borgula and Sally Berens, WD of Michigan, nominated by United States Attorney Patrick A. Miles, Jr, for their efforts in the successful prosecution o a $46 million Ponzi scheme.
Michael P. Norris, District of Nebraska, nominated by United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg, for his work in an internationally significant child pornography investigation.
David W. Feder and Letecia B. Vandehaar, District of New Jersey, nominated by United States Attorney Paul Fishman, for their investigation of Merrill Lynch’s subprime residential mortgage-backed securities platform and the $16.65 billion civll settlement with Bank of America.
Nicole W. Friedlander, SD New York, nominated by United States Attorney Preet Bharara for her high impact prosecutions in the area of consumer fraud and cybercrime.
Christopher M. Stephens, WD of Oklahoma, nominated by United States Attorney Sanford C. Coats for his work in the first prosecution in the nation involving fraud in the Federal Communication Commission’s wireless Lifeline Program.
Frederic N. Weinhouse, District of Oregon, nominated by United States Attorney Amanda Marshall, for his work as the Project Safe Neighborhood Coordinator for Oregon.
Heather H. Rattan, ED of Texas, nominated by United States Attorney John M. Bales, for her work in dismantling Colombia’s largest cocaine transportation network.
James H. Sturgis, SD of Texas, nominated by United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, for his successful prosecution of the “Panama Unit”, an elite counter-drug task force.
Debra Kanof, WD of Texas. nominated by United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr., for her successful investigation and prosecution of widespread public corruption in El Paso city and county government.
NAFUSA President Matt Orwig has announced that Jeffrey Toobin will speak in Scottsdale on the state of the United States Supreme Court.
Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and senior analyst for CNN, is one of the most recognized and admired legal journalists in the country. His most recent book, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, was published by Doubleday in 2012 and was a New York Times best-seller. The Oath followed The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, which was also a best-seller and earned the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Prize for Nonfiction from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is currently at work on a book about the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst.
Toobin, who is also a noted lecturer, has written several other critically acclaimed, best-selling books including A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President; The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson; and Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election.
Previously, Toobin served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. He also served as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, an experience that provided the basis for his first book, Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer’s First Case—United States v. Oliver North.
Toobin earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Registration remains open for the NAFUSA Scottsdale conference to be held at The Phoenician October 15-17, 2015. The conference will open on Thursday morning, October 15, with golf at The Phoenician.
NAFUSA The deadline for the conference rate of $325 a night has passed, but contact Blair Berman at the hotel at 480.423.2842 to check on availability. If a room is not available at The Phoenician, Blair will assist you in suggesting alternative hotels nearby.
Thursday evening will feature a cocktail reception at the Joake Inn at The Phoenician, honoring NAFUSA member David Margolis, as he serves his 50th year at the Department.
Friday and Saturday mornings will feature CLE programs, with a luncheon on Friday. The Friday program will feature an ethics presentation by Professor Marianne Jennings and a two hour panel on “Issues in 21st Century Policing: Protecting Civil Rights and Public Safety.”
Sally Quillian Yates
On Friday, luncheon will be held on The Phoenician Patio, with Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates as the featured speaker.
The Saturday CLE program will feature a dialogue with EOUSA Director Monty Wilkinson and AGAC Chair John Walsh, moderated by NAFUSA President Matt Orwig. The two Bradford Award winners will follow with presentations, and the morning will close with a two hour panel on “Criminal Justice Reform Proposals: How to be Tough and Smart on Crime.”
The conference will close on Saturday evening with a banquet and business meeting, featuring Jeffrey Toobin as the keynote speaker. He will speak on “The Supreme Court in the Age of Obama.”
On May 16, 2015, the NAFUSA officers and board members met in Nashville for their annual Spring meeting. The meeting was held at The Hermitage Hotel. As is the custom, members paid their own travel and hotel expenses.
President Matt Orwig reported on the early plans for the Scottsdale conference to be held on October 15-17 at The Phoenician. Registration is expected to begin in July. NAFUSA has nine sponsors for the conference, with more expected. A full list of sponsors can be found on the NAFUSA website and in each monthly newsletter.
Executive Director Rich Rossman reported that NAFUSA has 266 active members, including 60 life members (the latest being David Iglesias) and 24 senior members. Unfortunately 33 members have yet to pay their current dues, which were payable by February 28, 2015.
President Elect Greg Vega advised that the 2016 conference will be held on October 6-9, 2016, in San Diego at the Hotel Del Coronado.
The Board is shown in the photo below during their Saturday morning meeting at the hotel.
On the evening before the meeting, they enjoyed a boat cruise on the General Jackson Showboat on the Cumberland River. They were joined by Magistrate Joe Brown and his wife, Marilyn, Ed and Cindy Yarbrough, and Russ and Betty Dedrick. Joe, Ed and Russ are NAFUSA members in Tennessee, invited to join the board for the social events of the weekend.
Shown in the photo above (click on photo for a larger image):
Seated: Melissa Orwig, Ann Stevens, Susan Adzick, Patty Rossman, Marilyn Brown, Sue Farus, Cheryl Leone, Erica Stern, Julie Stephens, Cindy Daniel, Alice Martin, Yvonne Washington
Standing: Matt Orwig, Russ Dedrick, Chuck Stevens, Bob Cleary, Doug Jones, Bob Miller, Hal Hardin, Joe Brown, Rich Rossman, Greg Vega, Don Stern, Bill Leone, Terry Flynn, Jay Stephens, Jack Selden, Bart Daniel, Ken Wainstein, Ed Yarbrough, Cindy Yarbrough, Louis Martin, Don Washington
The social events began with a Thursday night performance of Grand Ole Opry Classics at Ryman Auditorium, golf on Friday morning, and closed with a reception hosted by Hal Hardin at his office, as shown below.
The planning has begun for NAFUSA’s annual conference, to be held this year on October 15-17, at The Phoenician in Scottsdale Arizona. President Matt Orwig has announced the first speaker signed for the conference.
Professor Marianne Jennings, an emeritus professor of legal and ethical studies in business from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, will speak on Friday morning, October 16, on eithics.. She was named professor of the year in the College of Business in 1981, 1987, 2000, and 2010 and was the recipient of a Burlington Northern teaching excellence award in 1985. She served as director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at ASU from 1995-1999. From 2006-2007, she served as the faculty director for the MBA Executive Program. She continues to teach graduate courses in business ethics and ethical culture at colleges around the country, and returned to ASU to teach graduate courses in the MBA and MACC masters programs.
Professor Jennings has authored hundreds of articles in academic, professional and trade journals. She was given best article awards by the institute of Internal Auditors and the Association of Government Accountants in 2001 and 2004. In 2006, her article, “Ethics and Investment Management: True Reform,” was selected by the United Kingdom’s Emerald Management Review from 15,000 articles in 400 journals as one of the top 50 articles in 2005. She was named one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders by Trust Across America in 2010. In 2012 she was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics by Ethisphere magazine.
Currently she has six textbooks and monographs in circulation. The eighth edition of her textbook, Case Studies in Business Ethics, and the tenth edition of her textbook, Business: lts Legal, Ethical and Global Environment were published in January 2014. Her first textbook, Real Estate Law, will have its 11th edition published in January 2016. Her text, Anderson’s Business and the Legal Environment will have its 23rd edition published in January 2016.
Her book, Business Strategy for the Political Arena, was selected in 1985 by Library Journal as one of its recommended books in business/government relations. A Business Tale: A Story of Ethics, Choices, Success, and a Very Large Rabbit, a fable about business ethics, was chosen by Library Journal in 2004 as its business book of the year. A Business Tale was also a finalist for two other literary awards for 2004. In 2000, her book on corporate governance was published by the New York Times MBA Pocket Series. Professor Jennings’ book on long-term success, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons from Fifteen Companies, Each With a Century of Dividends, was published in October 2002 and has been used by Booz, Allen, Hamilton for its work on business longevity. Her book, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse is used by auditors in advance detection of fraud and is a primer on corporate culture, including analysis of board efficacy. Her books have been translated into five languages.
She is a contributing editor for the Real Estate Law Journal, New Perspectives, The Smart Manager, and the Corporate Finance Review. She served on the Board of Editors for the Financial Analysts Journal from 2007-2012. She served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Legal Studies Education during 2003-2004.
Her columns have been syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Reader’s Digest. A collection of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, first published in 1994 is still being published. She was given an Arizona Press Club award in 1994 for her work as a feature columnist. She has been a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public Radio. She served as chair of the Bonneville International Advisory Board for KHTC/KIDR from 1994-1997 and was a weekly commentator on KGLE during 1998. She has appeared on CNBC, CBS This Morning, the Today Show, and CBS Evening News.
Professor Jennings earned her undergraduate degree in finance and her J. D. from Brigham Young University. She has done consulting work for law firms, government agencies, businesses and professional groups.
Several hundred photos from the October 2014 Boston conference have been added to the NAFUSA online photo gallery.
The five most recent thumbnails in the gallery represent the Thursday evening reception, the Friday CLE and harbor cruise, and the Saturday CLE and banquet. When you click on an event, a new page opens with thumbnails of images from that particular day or event. (Direct links to the five individual events are below.)
On an event thumbnail page, you may enlarge (or decrease) the size of the thumbnails with the slider at the top right.
For a slideshow of all of the images from that event, click Slideshow at the top left.
Click on any image on the thumbnails page for a large version of that photo. You can then proceed through the photos one-at-a-time (using the v-shaped arrows at the right and left of image).
You may download or order a print of any individual photo using the buttons at the top. For the 2014 Conference downloaded files are 4928 × 3264, approximately 3 MB each.
The NAFUSA annual conference was held in Boston October 9-11, 2014, and opened with a successful cocktail reception honoring Bob Mueller. NAFUSA President Don Stern contacted the Boston Red Sox after he learned that Bob was a true fan, and Red Sox Vice President David Friedman, shown below right, presented Mueller with a Red Sox jersey with his name and the number “12” representing Bob’s 12 years as the Director of the FBI and a bat autographed by the Red Sox manager, John Farrell.
One of the highlights of the conference was the presentation of this year’s J. Michael Bradford Award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders of the District of New Jersey for their outstanding prosecution of United States v. Paul Begrin. Paul Fishman, the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey was on hand for the presentation to his nominees. Shown below: President Don Stern, John Gay, Joe Minish, Steve Sanders and Paul Fishman.
The conference concluded with a dinner and business meeting on Saturday night featuring the keynote address by Ed Davis, former Boston Police Department Commissioner, who spoke on “Lessons Learned from the Boston Marathon Bombing”. Don Stern turned the gavel over to Matt Orwig, the new president for 2014-2015. In the photo below, Matt is presenting Don with a gift of a new golf bag.
In addition, the membership voted the following members to offices: President Elect: Gregory Vega, SD of California; Vice President: Bart Daniel, District of South Carolina; Secretary: Doug Jones, ND of Alabama; and Treasurer: Terry Flynn, WD of New York. The newly elected directors for the class of 2017 were: Zach Carter, ED of New York; Karen Hewitt, SD of California; Chuck Stevens, ED of California; Bob Miller, District of Colorado; and Neil MacBride, ED of Virginia.
Matt Orwig closed the meeting by promising to organize a great conference next year to be held at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 15-18, 2015.
Each year, NAFUSA recognizes an Assistant U.S. Attorney for outstanding performance through the J. Michael Bradford Memorial Award. The award is named after J. Michael Bradford, who served as a U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas from 1994 to 2001. Bradford, who died in 2003, had a distinguished career in public service, including successfully defending the government against lawsuits stemming from the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas. NAFUSA annually solicits nominations from current U.S. Attorneys for the Bradford Award. Typically, the recipient has handled a significant investigation and prosecution or series of prosecutions that has had a significant impact and merits special recognition.
Once again, a number of exceptional nominations were made by U.S. Attorneys around the country. The Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Vice President Greg Vega. Its members included Ed Dowd, Catherine Hanaway, Don Washington, Bart Daniel, Bob Cleary and Rich Rossman. This year, the Board voted to give the award to John Gay, Joseph Minish and Steven Sanders, from the District of New Jersey, nominated by United States Attorney Paul Fishman for their outstanding work in the case United States v. Paul Bergrin.
For nearly a decade, Paul Bergrin, a former assistant Essex County Prosecutor and former AUSA for the District of New Jersey, used his law practice to operate a criminal enterprise brokering narcotics deals, distributing drugs, operating a brothel owned by a client, tampering with witnesses, and conspiring to murder witnesses testifying against his clients. In 2009, after a five-year investigation, the grand jury returned an indictment charging Bergrin with using his law practice as an association-in-fact enterprise to commit racketeering acts, including murdering and conspiring to murder witnesses. The case was vigorously litigated with the Judge dismissing the RICO count stating that it failed to plead a viable offense. That ruling was appealed to the Third Circuit which reversed the dismissal and remanded the case for trial. The Judge remained hostile to the Government’s case and severed two substantive counts relating to a murder, and ordered the Government to try the severed counts first. Among other obstacles, the Judge excluded certain evidence, resulting in the jury’s inability to reach a verdict resulting in a mistrial. Upon retrial, the Judge made more evidentiary rulings against the Government and severed remaining counts prior to retrial of the murder counts. The Government again appealed the Judge’s evidentiary rulings and also sought permission to have the case assigned to a new Judge. The Third Circuit held that the Judge had erroneously excluded certain Rule 404(b) evidence and concluded a reasonable observer could question the judge’s impartiality. The Circuit ordered the case be reassigned and directed the new judge to reconsider whether any severance was necessary. The new judge ordered all counts be tried together. At trial, the Government presented evidence that Bergrin was involved in subornation of perjury; involved with a 2004 murder; attempted to hire a hit-man to murder witnesses; and 54 kilograms of cocaine seized from a restaurant he jointly owned with his girlfriend. The Government called 42 witnesses (some in protective custody) and introduced over 1,000 exhibits.
Bergin represented himself at trial, but was also assisted by a prominent defense team that filed daily motions that required briefing and argument by the prosecution team. The trial team exhibited hard work, cogent legal arguments, skillful presentation of evidence and persuasive advocacy. After three days of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all 23 counts and found the Government to have proved every RICO predicate act alleged in the indictment. The Court imposed concurrent life sentences on Bergrin. Despite facing numerous obstacles, the team remained focused in the finest tradition and represented the Government in the finest tradition.
The other nominees were:
Christopher Bodnar and Sean Costello, nominated by United States Attorney Kenyen Ray Brown, SD of Alabama, for their work on Operation Measured Bold, a massive multi-agency international terrorism case.
Bridget M. Brennan, nominated by United States Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach, ND of Ohio, for her in prosecution of of the hate crimes case involving religiously-motivated assaults against the Amish, prosecution of one of the largest credit union cases and prosecution of a religiously motivated arson case involving the Islamic Center for Greater Toledo.
Jay R. Combs, nominated by United States Attorney John Malcolm Bales, ED of Texas, for his work in prosecuting and investigating a significant drug trafficking organization.
Bonnie Jonas, nominated by United States Attorney Preet Bharara, SD of New York, for her work in significant high impact white collar cases, including Aurora Foods, WorldCom, Royal Ahold, Olympus, Deutsche Bank and Toyota.
Melanie K. Pierson, nominated by United States Attorney Laura E. Duffy, SD of California, for her work in protecting the environment from various threats.
Christopher D. Poole, nominated by United States Attorney William C. Killian, ED of Tennessee, for his work in leading an investigation targeting gang members in Chattanooga in Operation Shutdown.
Stephen M. “Mark” McIntyre, nominated by United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson, SD of Texas, for his successful prosecution of Weatherford International Limited for violation of export control laws.
Steven Myhre and Jim Keller, nominated by United States Attorney Daniel G. Bogden, Nevada, for their work in prosecuting Young and Willard for complex securities fraud in the futures market (FOREX).
Matthew D.Segal, nominated by United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, ED of California, for prosecution of complex and significant white collar cases, including the CEO of a major food processor.
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