NAFUSA Board Member Donna Bucella has accepted the position of Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for 7-Eleven, Inc. Prior to joining 7-Eleven, Donna was the President of Compliance at Guidepost Solutions. She also served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. In addition, Donna has an impressive record of public service, including working as Assistant Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service as the first Southeast Area Director for the Transportation Security Administration and as the first Director of the Terrorist Screening Center. Donna began her career serving in the U.S. Army, JAG Corps, where she retired as a Colonel.
Donna will focus on all aspects of legal compliance in this newly created role.
Volkswagen AG (VW) was sentenced in federal court in Detroit on April 21, 2017, after pleading guilty to three felony counts stemming from the company’s scheme to sell diesel vehicles containing software designed to cheat on U.S. emissions tests. VW paid a $2.8 billion penalty and the parties announced that the government had selected NAFUSA life member Larry Thompson as an independent corporate compliance monitor who was to oversee the company during its three-year term of probation.
On Monday, August 27, 2018, Thompson issued a report finding that the company has only just begun to take steps necessary to prevent future scandals.
“The wrongful acts and crimes that were committed in the United States were enormous,” Mr. Thompson said, according to The New York Times. “The cultural change is going to be enormous, and it’s going to require lots of work on the part of the company.” He said, “In my experience, one of the cornerstones of any effective ethics and compliance effort is the organization’s willingness to hold itself and its executives, especially top executives, accountable for wrongdoing.”
The University of Virginia announced on August 23 that NAFUSA board member Tim Heaphy has been appointed University Counsel by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring. According to the Release from the University of Virginia:
Heaphy, a UVA alumnus and currently a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth and a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will take office Sept. 1. As University counsel, Heaphy will lead UVA’s Office of University Counsel, which is responsible for representing the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia in all legal and regulatory matters. The office provides legal counsel to the Board of Visitors, President Ryan, executive officers and other administrators, faculty and staff in their official capacities. As a member of the University’s senior leadership team, Heaphy will provide strategic advice to the Board of Visitors and Ryan on a number of important issues.
“With his deep roots in Virginia, in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia, Tim is well-positioned to help President Ryan and the Board of Visitors implement their vision, and to help the University continue to grow and thrive,” Herring said. “His experience in the private and public sectors, especially his years of service as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, give him a depth and breadth of experience that will serve the University well.”
“Tim is an outstanding attorney with a sharp mind and a long history of public service,” Ryan said. “He understands the important role the University plays in the community and nation, and his legal expertise will undoubtedly benefit both the commonwealth and UVA. I am delighted that Attorney General Herring has appointed Tim and grateful that Tim has agreed to serve in this important leadership position at his alma mater.”
Attorneys in the Office of University Counsel are appointed by the attorney general of Virginia and represent the University on legal matters affecting University operations and interests.
“I am honored to have been appointed University counsel for the University of Virginia,” Heaphy said. “UVA and Charlottesville are very special places for me and my family, and I can’t think of a better way to continue my career as a public servant in the law than to represent what I believe to be the best public university in the nation. I am grateful to Attorney General Herring for entrusting me with this responsibility, and I look forward to serving the UVA Board of Visitors, President Ryan and the University’s distinguished faculty and staff.”
Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia in 2009, Heaphy was the chief law enforcement officer responsible for prosecuting federal crime and defending the United States in civil litigation for six years. Prior to that role, he was a partner with the law firm McGuireWoods. He served as assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia and the Western District of Virginia from 1994 to 2006.
In 2017, Heaphy led a team of lawyers at Hunton & Williams who conducted an independent review of the protest events in Charlottesville last year. The report and its findings led to the development of new policies and procedures regarding how to better manage public protests while also ensuring First Amendment protections and public safety.
Heaphy is founder and board chair of The Fountain Fund, a nonprofit organization in Charlottesville that provides low-interest loans to formerly incarcerated people in Central Virginia. As a law student at UVA, he helped start a loan forgiveness program for students who entered public service work after graduation.
In 2015, former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe appointed him to the Commission on Parole Review. He clerked for Judge John A. Terry of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and prior to law school served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware.
Heaphy earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the UVA School of Law.
Jay and Julie Stephens are vacationing in Northern Michigan and stopped in Leland (the unofficial home of NAFUSA) to have dinner with Rich and Patty Rossman. They also toured the Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore and enjoyed a day on the Rossman pontoon. Jay is the counsel to the NAFUSA board of directors, and a past president. Rich is the executive director of NAFUSA.
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 Vice President Paul Coggins. Its members included Donna Bucella, Paul Charlton, Barry Grissom, and Karen Hewitt. This year, the Board voted to give the award to AUSAP.J.Meitl of the Northern District of Texas, nominated by U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, who wrote:
In 2017, AUSA Meitl completed the case of United States v. Jacques Roy, et al, 3:12-CR-0054-L, the largest criminal investigation and prosecution of a single physician for health care fraud in the history of the Department of Justice. Before his arrest, Dr. Roy falsely certified more than 12,000 individual beneficiaries for more than 500 home health agencies in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, submitting more than $373 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medicaid for payment.Dr. Roy caused the deaths of at least three patients, and harmed countless more through blatant medical malpractice.He was not just an unrepentant con man, but a dangerous one.
Due in large part to AUSA Meitl’s efforts, Dr. Roy was sentenced in August 2017 to 35 years’ imprisonment. This case had a significant impact not just because Dr. Roy’s enormous criminal fraud ring was destroyed, but was also a model of seamless cooperation in health care fraud prosecution efforts by law enforcement agents from HHS-OIG and the FBI.
In just five years with the Department of Justice, AUSA Meitl has prosecuted more than 500 defendants and participated in more than 15 jury trials.While the Dr. Roy prosecution was ongoing, AUSA Meitl still worked tirelessly to prosecute 89 members of North Texas white supremacist groups in Operation “Vanilla Ice”.
Other nominees were:
Emil J. Bove (Southern District of New York)
Daniel A. Chatham (Northern District of Iowa)
Zia M. Faruqui (District of Columbia)
Elizabeth Gabriel (District of Columbia)
Julie K. Hampton (Southern District of Texas)
Michael J. Hunter (Southern District of Ohio)
Nathaniel Kummerfeld (Eastern District of Texas)
Timothy M. O’Shea (Western District of Wisconsin)
Perry H. Piper (Eastern District of Tennessee)
Keith W. Reisenauer (District of North Dakota)
Matthew W. Shepherd (Northern District of Ohio)
Deborah Sines (District of Columbia)
Richard M. Tucker (Eastern District of New York)
Gordon A.D. Zubrod (Middle District of Pennsylvania)
NAFUSA member Mary Jo White (Southern District of New York, 1993-2002) was named by The Ohio State University to lead the investigation of what coach Urban Meyer knew and did about domestic abuse accusations against a former assistant. The university placed Meyer on a three game suspension after receiving White’s report.
Mary Jo White is a partner of Debevoise & Plimpton and a former chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The State Bar of Michigan’s Negligence Section will present its Outstanding Achievement Award to NAFUSA member Mike Dettmer at the Negligent Section’s Annual Summer Meeting in Traverse City on August 9, 2018.
Currently of counsel to the firm of Olson, Bzdok & Howard in Traverse City, where he still maintains an active mediation/alternative dispute resolution practice, Mike has had as interesting and diverse a career as any. He has been a trial lawyer for more than 45 years, served for many years on the State Bar Board of Commissioners, helped the state bar address the lawyer malpractice insurance crisis in the late 1980s, and was one of the founders of Michigan Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company, where he eventually served as president and CEO. He also served the State Bar of Michigan as its 59th president. He was appointed by President Clinton to serve as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, where he served 1994-2001.
The State of Illinois and the City of Chicago have released a draft court-enforceable consent decree in the matter of State of Illinois v. City of Chicago, case no. 17-cv-6260, that addresses the findings issued by the U.S. Department of Justice in January 2017 and that form the basis of the lawsuit filed by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Illinois. A copy of the draft consent decree can be found here: www.chicagopoliceconsentdecree.org.
As part of the consent decree, the parties have agreed to work to jointly identify an independent monitor to oversee compliance with the decree. On July 27, 2018. the parties are released the attached Request for Proposals. Responses to the Request for Proposal will be due on September 4, 2018. The Office of the Attorney General of Illinois has invited NAFUSA to notify its members of this opportunity, stating, “Given your organization’s stated mission, we believe you may have members who have an interest in serving as the independent monitor or participating as a team member.”
Flag flown over Main Justice on July 17 in honor of Stan Bardwell
Former U.S. Attorney Stanford O. Bardwell Jr. died at his Baton rouge home on June 9, 2018. He was 78 years of age. Bardwell served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana from 1981 to 1986. He also served as the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Energy Department 1986-1988. He is survived by his wife, Leslie Bardwell and his three children, Brian, Patrick and Erin.
As is our custom, at NAFUSA’s request, an American flag was flown over Main Justice on July 17, 2018, and will be presented on by NAFUSA member Ray Lamonica to Stan’s wife Leslie.
NAFUSA Board Member Donna Bucella has accepted the position of Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for 7-Eleven, Inc. Prior to joining 7-Eleven, Donna was the President of Compliance at Guidepost Solutions. She also served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. In addition, Donna has an impressive record of public service, including working as Assistant Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service as the first Southeast Area Director for the Transportation Security Administration and as the first Director of the Terrorist Screening Center. Donna began her career serving in the U.S. Army, JAG Corps, where she retired as a Colonel.
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