James Cavanaugh recently retired as a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives official after 33 years. After years in management and handling crises, he offers his advice on the Gulf oil spill.

James Cavanaugh/atf photo

Handling a crisis as a leader is different than everyday leadership. The pace and the tempo of the event require the leader to step outside of the day-to-day operations and assume a different posture.

What works in the everyday world of leadership is not what works in the world of crisis leadership. I had my share of crises in a leadership role in ATF. But nothing compares to this. Still, I have some thoughts I wanted to share.

The United States, it’s leaders and the whole government apparatus have now been thrown into a new kind of crisis. It is not the crisis we’re normally used to dealing with, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, terrorists, foreign wars, fiscal problems.

No, this is all new, a catastrophe made by man, born in greed, fueled by our own insatiable desire for oil.

Judge Friedman imposed sanction

A Detroit federal judge has fined a former assistant U.S. Attorney  $2,000 for making an “unwarranted and baseless request” in a child pornography case, the Detroit News reported.  The judge alleged that the ex-prosecutor, turned defense attorney, tried to intimidate the mother of the victim.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman last week imposed the sanction against ex-prosecutor John Freeman, ruling that he had no business asking that the prosecution file a formal motion seeking  permission for the victim’s mother to speak at the sentencing  for Craig Aleo.

Aleo, a former school official in  Walled Lake, a Detroit suburb, was sentenced to 60 years in April for producing child porn in which he victimized a 4-year-old girl, the News reported.

Friedman said in an opinion that attorney Freeman already knew the mother was likely to testify at sentencing and filed  the motion with the express purpose of trying to intimidate her. The judge said it was not necessary for prosecutors to formally file such a request.

The motion that caused the stir was filed by defense attorney Freeman on April 13.