Brian Lamkin/fbi photo

WASHINGTON — Brian D. Lamkin, assistant director of the FBI Training Division in Quantico, has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta office.

Lamkin entered the FBI in February 1987 and was first assigned to the Norfolk Division. Three years later, he headed south to the Dallas Division, where he worked on the Dallas Bank Fraud Task Force, which addressed the largest savings and loan failure crisis in U.S. history, according to the FBI.

In May 1997, he was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Financial Institution Fraud Unit at FBI Headquarters.

Read more »

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday nominated U.S. Attorneys for Idaho and Maine, the website Main Justice reported.

The nominees include Main Superior Court Justice Thomas Edward Delahanty for Maine and assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson for Idaho.

The website, which closely tracks U.S. Attorney appointments, says President Obama has now made 54 U.S. Attorney nominations and the Senate has confirmed 34 of those.

Meanwhile, the website reported that the Senate on Wednesday night confirmed the U.S. Attorney nominations of William J. Hochul Jr. for the Western District of New York and Sally Q. Yates for the Northern District of Georgia.

-

By Allan Lengel

William J. Drum, a highly regarded “take-no-prisoners” Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives agent in Philadelphia for 20 years, died last week at age 85, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Drum started with ATF in 1960 and retired in 1980, the paper reported. He also worked as an investigator in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and security officer for Harrah’s Casino in Atlantic City.

He was a church deacon and lived in Blackwood, N.J., the paper reported.

“He had a stable of informants,” James Kelly, retired ATF agent who worked with Drum told the Daily News. “He was the personification of the U.S. Treasury agent. He was a hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners type of guy who never let up on a case. He worked 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week.”

To read more click here.

By Allan Lengel

President Obama on Wednesday nominated Willie R. Stafford, a background investigator for the Greensboro, N.C. police epartment, for the U.S. Marshal spot for the Middle District of North Carolina.

His bio is a follows, according to a White House press release:

Willie R. Stafford currently serves as a background investigator for the Greensboro, NC, police department, and is an independent consultant providing pre-employment screening and promotional testing services for law enforcement agencies.

From 1975 to 2004, Stafford served with the Greensboro Police Department in a variety of operational positions. He retired as the Assistant Chief of Police for the Western Operations Bureau. Stafford earned a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs in 1988 and a Bachelor’s Degree in American History and Psychology in 1975, both from the University of North Carolina.

Mike Ormsby/law firm photo

The slow, laborious process of filling the U.S. Attorney posts around the country continued on Wednesday when President Obama nominated attorneys to fill the spots in New Mexico and the Eastern District of Washington state.

The nominees include assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales for the New Mexico post and private attorney Michael C. Ormsby to serve as United States Attorneys.

The bios of the two are as follows, according to the White House press release:

Kenneth J. Gonzales currently works as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico, where he has been since 1999. He also serves in the United States Army Reserve in the Office of the Judge Advocate General. He recently returned from active duty at Fort Bragg, where he served as Senior Trial Counsel. He also spends one weekend a month working as a Judge Advocate Legal Assistance Attorney, working with Army personnel on estate planning and other legal matters. Previously, Gonzales worked as a Legislative Assistant in the Office of United States Senator Jeff Bingaman. Gonzales began his legal career serving as a Law Clerk for the Honorable Joseph F. Baca of the Supreme Court of New Mexico from 1994 until 1996. Gonzales is a 1988 graduate of the University of New Mexico and a 1991 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law.

Michael C. Ormsby has been a partner at K&L Gates, LLP since 1988. He advises public entities and governmental institutions on municipal finance and other legal matters. He has also served on the Spokane Public School Board and the Eastern Washington University Board of Trustees. He started his legal career as an associate attorney at Lukins & Annis P.S., where he worked from 1981 to 1988. Ormsby graduated from Gonzaga University in 1979 and the Gonzaga University School of Law in 1981.

By Allan Lengel

President Obama on Wednesday nominated  U.S. Marshals for the northern and southern districts of West Virginia and in North Dakota.

The nominees, according to the White House, include: John Foster for the Southern District of West Virginia; Paul Ward for North Dakota and Gary M. Gaskins for the Nothern District of West Virginia.

The bios of each nominee are as follows, as provided by the White House:

*John Foster is a Judicial Security Inspector with the United States Marshals Service (USMS) in the Southern District of West Virginia. Since 2007, he has overseen the protection of federal judges, U.S. attorneys, federal public defenders, and other court personnel. He joined the USMS in 1990 as a Deputy U.S. Marshal. From 1985 to 1990, Mr. Foster was a trooper with the West Virginia State Police in Summersville, WV. He is retired from the West Virginia Air National Guard, in which he served from 1980 to 2000. Mr. Foster was awarded a Regents Bachelor of Arts degree from Glenville State College in 1991. He has also earned an Associate’s Degree in Fire Science from the Community College of the Air Force in 1989, and an Associate’s Degree in Political Science from Marshall University in 1986.

Read more »

Alicia Limtiaco/gov photo

President Obama on Wednesday continued to nominate U.S. Attorneys, this time for California, Texas, Guam and Florida.

The nominees included Laura E. Duffy for the Southern District of California; Wifredo A. Ferrer for the Southern District of Florida; Alicia Limtiaco for Guam and John B. Stevens, Jr. for the Eastern District of Texas, according to the White House.

The following are bios as provided in a White House press release:

*Laura Duffy has been with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California since 1997, where was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Narcotics Enforcement Section until 2007 when she became the Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section. Prior to that, Ms. Duffy worked for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 1993 until 1997, first as a trial attorney for the Money Laundering Section until 1994, and then as a trial attorney for the Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Section. Ms. Duffy is a graduate of Iowa State University (1988) and from the Creighton University School of Law (1993).

Read more »

Elizabeth Fries/fbi photo

Elizabeth A. Fries,  special assistant to the associate deputy director at FBI headquarters, is taking over the agency’s Louisville division as special agent in charge.

Fries joined the FBI in 1991 and was first assigned to the Indianapolis Division where she worked a variety of cases including public corruption and bank fraud, the FBI said.

Later, she was off to the Office of the Independent Counsel in Little Rock, Ark. as part of the Whitewater investigation, the FBI said. In 1998, she headed north to New York to investigate organized crime.

In 2000, she arrived at the mothership, headquarters, as a supervisory special agent in the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters.

She went on to some other assignments and in 2006 became assistant special agent in charge of the Miami office. In 2008, she was named special assistant to the associate deputy director, where she provided counsel to the associate deputy director on a variety of policy, technical, budget, and administrative matters, the FBI said.