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 a series of prosecutions which 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 J. Michael Bradford Award Committee was chaired by NAFUSA Treasurer John Richter. Its members included Deb Gilg, Lee Bentley, Greg Brower, Paul Fishman, Rich Hartunian, Ed Stanton, Chuck Stevens and Johnny Sutton.
This year, the NAFUSA Board of Directors voted to give the award to former AUSA Caroline Heck Miller, who retired this year from of the District of Southern District of Florida, nominated by U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez. Caroline served 42 years in an outstanding manner is a variety of capacities. DOJ hired her directly out of law school in 1979. She joined the SD of Florida in 1983. “During an era in which women did not advance in the workplace at anywhere near the rate they do today, Caroline was a trailblazer who quickly rose into significant leadership roles within our Office. During her career Caroline was appointed to our Office’s highest leadership positions, tasked with one of DOJ’s most important overseas postings”, Gonzalez said in his nomination.
In the 1980s Caroline served as Chief of the Fraud Section. She oversaw several of the most significant criminal cases in the nation arising out of the wave of of bank and S&L crashes.
In the 1990s Caroline continued to handle some of the Office’s most complex and important prosecutions, including criminal charges resulting from the catastrophic crash of discount carrier ValuJet Airlines Flight 592 which led to the death of 110 people. In 1996, a Cuban military fighter jet shot down two planes flown over international water by members of a Miami based anti-Castro organization. A five month trial led by Caroline led to the conviction of five defendants for acting at the direction of the Cuban Directorate of Intelligence as covert spies in the United Sates.
In the mid-2000s, Caroline returned to prosecuting bank fraud cases,. Several years later she successfully prosecuted the son of the former president of Liberia. Installed by his father as the head of Liberia’s Anti-Terrosim Unit, also known as the “Demon Forces,” Taylor carried out an utterly grisly and revolting three-year campaign of torture. After the Taylor trial, Caroline served as the DOJ Attache with the Criminal Division in the UK from 2014 through 2019, before returning to the SD of Florida.
The Miami Herald in reporting on Caroline Miller’s retirement, stated, “Heck Miller came to be known as a trailblazer among prosecutors in the federal courthouse. She was also a ‘resident rabbi’ offering sage advice on the law, ethics and trials to young prosecutors, and a polished writer who did all of her own pleadings and appeals.”
NAFUSA is proud to name her our 2022 Outstanding Assistant United States Attorney.
Here are the other nominees for this year’s Bradford Award. Each of the nominees will receive recognition from NAFUSA for their exemplary service.
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