By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced that he plans to nominate Stacia A. Hylton, a former U.S. Marshals Service official, to head up the agency.

A White House press release issued Friday said that Hylton currently run a consulting company, Hylton Kirk & Associates.

Hylton served in law enforcement positions in the Justice Department for 29 years including acting deputy director, assistant director prisoner operations, chief deputy in the District of South Carolina and Chief of Judicial Security Programs.

She attended Northeastern University and earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Criminal Justice in 1983. She would replace John Clark, who was appointed by President Bush in 2006.

Sam Hicks/fbi photo

A drug dealer whose wife shot and killed Pittsburgh FBI agent Sam Hicks in 2008 during an FBI raid at their  home laughed when he learned the agent had been shot, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

As a result of that and his “dispicable behavior” after the slaying of the agent, a federal prosecutor will be asking for more time beyond the 20-year minimum at sentencing Friday for Robert Korbe, a convicted drug trafficker, the Post-Gazette reported.

Prosecutors said that Korbe taunted police at the scene, called them idiots and said “I’ll shoot all of you,” the Post-Gazette reported.

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Ken Melson and Dennis Burke/atf photo

WASHINGTON — ATF is creating seven new anti-gunrunner groups around the country to try and cut the flow of illegal firearms to Mexico.

In announcing the new move, ATF said it was placing the groups “along traditional and newly-discovered firearms trafficking routes and hubs” in Atlanta, Dallas, Brownsville, Tex., Las Vegas, Miami, Oklahoma City and Sierra Vista, Az.

The groups are being created as a result of the 2010 emergency supplemental appropriation for border security. ATF received $37.5 million for Project Gunrunner to halt the flow of illegal guns to Mexico, the agency said.

By Allan Lengel

FBI evidence control technician Melissa L. Sims found a nifty way to take home some extra cash from work: She stole it, the feds say.

The Post-Tribune reported that FBI employee Melissa L. Sims is charged with stealing between 30,000 to $80,000 from the FBI’s Merrillville, Ind.  office evidence room.

The paper reported that Sims, as part of her job, oversaw evidence and was supposed to make sure it was eventually returned to the owner. Instead, she forged vouchers showing she had returned money when in fact she hadn’t.

The scam went on until August 2008, and a month later, she left the office. the paper reported. It reported that it was unclear whether Sims was fired or quit.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON —  Sept. 19th marked the second anniversary of the website ticklethewire.com.

It’s been one interesting ride, starting up a new enterprise, trying to cover a subject I’ve had a fascination with since I started journalism.

In the past two years, we’ve seen the good, the bad and very ugly. We saw the changing of the guard at the Justice Department.  A new Attorney General.  New U.S. Attorneys.  We saw the public corruption conviction of ex-Rep. William Jefferson.  We witnessed the FBI, thankfully, unearth some scary terrorist plots.

We had the “Times Square Bomber”. We had the “Underwear bomber”. And financial terrorist Bernie Madoff.

We saw John Gotti Jr. walk free after four deadlocked trials. We saw the somewhat shocking outcome of the Rod Blagojevich case.  We saw a cheating scandal involving tests at the FBI. And we just saw some FBI agents busted for lying about taking steroids.

I suspect the next year will be just as exciting. I want to thank everyone for the reading the site and the many around the country who have provided feedback on the content.

I invite anyone who has any suggestions to write me and let me know what you like or don’t like. And I always invite anyone to comment on stories, particularly if you think the coverage has  been unfair.

Thanks again for taking time out to read the ticklethewire.com. And I look forward to another fascinating year.

All the Best,

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_QTyTiCjQ4

istock photo

U.S. Capitol police shot and seriously wounded a man who pointed a gun at them on Capitol Hill near the intersection of 2nd and C streets SW around 5 a.m. Friday, WRC TV in Washington reported.

The station said the suspect was taken to the hospital where he was in grave condition.

No one else was injured.

The late mobster John J. Gotti

Garment businessman Lewis Kasman, the late mobster John Gotti’s confidante and self-proclaimed “adopted son” and FBI mole avoided getting a prison sentence Thursday for lying to the FBI and other crimes, Long Island’s Newsday reported.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn on Thursday spared Kasman, 53, a prison sentence for obstruction of justice, lying to the FBI, fraud and racketeering, Newsday reported, saying he committed some of the crimes while he was cooperating with the FBI. He was sentenced to time served and given three years probation.

The paper said the judge acknowledged that Kasman’s cooperation was a big help in battling the Gambino crime family that Gotti headed up.

“At great risk to himself [Kasman] leveraged the substantial trust that he had built within the Gambino family to provide the government with valuable information,” said Garaufis, according to the paper.

“I did enjoy running with the bad guys at that point in my life,” Kasman told Garaufis, the paper reported. “It is a hard lesson learning to live a clean life.”