Department of Justice Seal


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	OPR

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 1998 (202) 616-2777

TDD (202) 514-1888

H. MARSHALL JARRETT APPOINTED TO HEAD

OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY




Attorney General Janet Reno announced today she will appoint H. Marshall Jarrett, a career prosecutor with more than two decades as a Justice Department prosecutor and senior manager, as the new Chief Counsel and Director of the Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

OPR was created in 1975 to investigate allegations of professional misconduct by Department attorneys.

"Marshall Jarrett's wide-ranging experience and unshakable integrity make him the right person for the job," said Reno. "In his two decades with the Justice Department, he has served in two U.S. Attorney's offices and at Main Justice as a line prosecutor, a criminal chief, a First Assistant U.S. Attorney, and as Deputy Chief of the Public Integrity Section. I'm counting on him to make sure that complaints against Justice Department lawyers are handled fully and fairly, and I know he will do a superb job."

Reno indicated that Jarrett, 53, will assume the post in the near future. "As a veteran of the Public Integrity Section, Marshall Jarrett is very experienced in dealing with allegations of official misconduct," she added. "As a manager of several different offices, he has shown that he can oversee sensitive and complex cases. In combination, these two factors made him a natural choice."

Jarrett, a resident of Falls Church, Virginia, has served in a wide variety of positions within the Department of Justice. In 1975 he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia as a trial attorney, where he rose to the positions of Chief of the Criminal Division and later First Assistant U.S. Attorney.





After serving briefly as the Deputy Director of the Enforcement Division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in 1980 Mr. Jarrett joined the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section as a trial attorney. He was later named Assistant Chief for Operations, and Deputy Chief of the Section. During his tenure there, Mr. Jarrett prosecuted a variety of defendants, including CIA agents for stealing government funds, the chairman Kentucky's Democratic Party for an insurance mail fraud and tax scheme, and a Mississippi sheriff for drug trafficking.

In 1988, Jarrett was named by then-U.S. Attorney Jay B. Stephens as Chief of the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the largest United States Attorney's office in the nation. Mr. Jarrett served with distinction in that position, managing such high profile cases as prosecutions of drug kingpin Rayful Edmonds III, Congressman Dan Rostenkowski, twelve corrupt District of Columbia police officers who became known as the "Dirty Dozen," and Mayor Marion Barry. In July of 1997, Jarrett became an Associate Deputy Attorney General within the Department of Justice, where he has assisted the senior leadership in formulating policy and managing the Department.

The post has been vacant since December 30, 1997, when Mike Shaheen left after 22 years. Attorney General Edward H. Levi created OPR and picked Shaheen to head it in December, 1975. "Our system of justice is more accountable because of Mike Shaheen and the legacy he made for OPR," said Reno.

Since December, OPR's Deputy Counsel Richard Rogers has served as its Acting Director. "I am grateful to Dick Rogers for his excellent service," added Reno. "He has helped OPR maintain its high standards."

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