DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SENDS 25 ADVISORS TO IRAQ IN SUPPORT OF
PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY EFFORT TO RECONSTRUCT CRIMINAL SYSTEM

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Attorney General John Ashcroft announced today that the Department of Justice, through the Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) and International Criminal Investigation Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), has sent 25 career, criminal justice practitioners as advisors to Iraq to assist in the reconstruction of the judicial, prosecutorial and law enforcement sectors in the country. OPDAT sent a team of 13 judicial officials, including judges, prosecutors, public defenders and court administrators. ICITAP sent a team of 12 law enforcement professionals, including police officials and correctional experts. They are joined by senior criminal justice sector officials from Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

The advisors will assist the Department of Defense, Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA). The Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), will provide logistical and other support to the DOJ-led international team and is actively engaged in the effort to restore law and order in Iraq. INL has assigned a senior officer to serve as advisor to the Iraqi Minister of the Interior; will assist in standing up an Iraqi national civilian police force within existing structures; will coordinate training, advisory services, equipment and facility reconstruction as needed, based upon the results of the DOJ-led assessment; and is coordinating offers of assistance from other governments to rebuild the criminal justice sector in Iraq.

“For decades, a fortunate few Iraqis have escaped the reign of Saddam Hussein's tyranny and fear to find freedom in the United States,” said Attorney General Ashcroft. “Now, all Iraqis can taste liberty in their native land, and we will help make that freedom permanent by assisting them to establish an equitable criminal justice system, based on the rule of law and standards of basic human rights.”

The primary goals of the teams will be making initial assessments of the Iraqi judicial and law enforcement sectors; providing recommendations regarding the reestablishment of criminal justice institutions; as well as participating in the development of a strategic, long-range, sustainable plan for policing, prosecutions, corrections and court systems.

Justice personnel from OPDAT and ICITAP, along with their international counterparts, will provide assistance and expert, practical advice to the people and institutions of Iraq, but the Iraqis will make the choices of accepting which options will become final standards for the criminal justice system. The end result of the two programs will be the permanent transition of all judicial sector, civilian police and correctional operations to Iraqi control, leaving a sustainable infrastructure to maintain order, human rights and rule of law.

Michael Turner (Program Manager) - Michael Turner began his 24-year law enforcement career as a police officer and rose through the ranks to the position chief of police. Mr. Turner accepted a position as an international police officer for the United Nations peace keeping mission in Kosovo where he served as the executive officer for the Deputy Police Commissioner, Operations. He also served as the chief of staff for the Kosovo Police Service School. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a master’s degree in Public Administration.

R. Carr Trevillian IV (Assistant Program Manager) - R. Carr Trevillian has served in various capacities for ICITAP since 1988. He has worked with numerous police reform and training programs in the various regions. He was the former principal deputy director of the Kosovo Police Service School for 27 months, and spent 17 months as the deputy director of the Police Development Unit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe where he coordinated all police training, technical assistance and reform initiatives for the Ministry of Interior and the Macedonian National Police. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia.

Police Advisors

James Anderson - James Anderson currently serves as the commander of the Law Enforcement Academy for Nevada POST. He has served as the chief of police in both Calistoga and Fairfax, Calif. He is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel with service in the military police. He has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.

Gerald Burke - Gerald Burke serves as the director of the New England Institute for Law Enforcement Management. He was a police commander with the Massachusetts State Police. He is a 1990 graduate of the FBI National Academy, and has a bachelor’s degree in Education and a master’s degree in Criminal Justice.

Larry Hines - Larry Hines began his 24-year career as a Border Patrol agent and rose to the rank of section chief for the Criminal Investigation Division of the Immigration and Naturalization Service before retiring last year. He has an associates’s degree in Criminal Justice, and has graduated from the INS Leadership Development course.

Richard Miller - Richard Miller most recently served as a district commander of the New Mexico State Police, and worked in law enforcement for 21 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Educational Management. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

John Meiklejohn - John Meiklejohn has worked in law enforcement for 25 years. He was the police captain for the Montgomery County (Md.) Police Department. He also was the director of the Haitian National Police Training Center in Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo. He has additional police training experience in Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania, as well as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine. He has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.

Alexander Von Koch - Alexander Von Koch is a police technical assistance advisor to foreign governments for the Department of Treasury. He retired as a commander of the Newark (Del.) Police Department, after a 30-year career. His municipal career included extensive experience in both traffic and criminal investigations. He has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and a master’s degree in Personnel Administration. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Corrections Advisors

Larry Dubois - Larry Dubois served as a warden, regional director and commissioner of corrections. He has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and was a fellow at the Harvard University School of Law.

Samuel Juett - Dr. Samuel Juett has an extensive background as a public administrator. He has been a city administrator in Georgia and Louisiana, and has been involved in the development of both police and detention systems. He is a former guest lecturer for the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and a former Army captain with a logistics background. He has a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Georgia.

Lane McCotter - Lane McCotter is a retired lieutenant colonel and military police officer with an extensive background in corrections. He was the warden of the U.S. military prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. He is also a former cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Corrections Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a masters degree in Criminology. He is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College.

Terry Stewart - Terry Stewart was the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. He is a former chief of police. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, a master’s degree in Business Administration and has completed his course work towards a Ph.D. in Public Administration.

Prosecutors

Michael Dittoe (Team Leader) - Michael Dittoe is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida. For the past year, he served as the OPDAT resident legal advisor in Kosovo where he worked in the Chief Sensitive Information and Operations Unit in the United Nations Department of Justice. He has been an OPDAT resident legal advisor in Russia, an attorney in the DOJ Office of International Affairs, and an AUSA in Kansas City, Mo., working on the organized crime cases.

Gary Shattuck - Gary Shattuck is an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Vermont. He has worked as an OPDAT Intermittent Legal Advisor in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina, and was an assistant attorney general in Vermont.

Mike Mullaney - Mike Mullaney is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Florida and is the chief of the Public Corruption Section there. He has been a special agent with the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

Charles Jakosa - Charles Jakosa is a trial attorney in the DOJ Civil Rights Division. He works in the Special Litigation Section and handles civil rights violations by state and local law enforcement. Previously, he worked in the Indian Resources Section of the Department of Justice and was a public defender in Seattle.

Michael Farhang - Michael Farhang is an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California. He has worked as a trial attorney with the DOJ Tax Division and as a member of an OPDAT assessment team for the Palestinian Authority. He is a fluent Arabic speaker.

Judges

Judge Donald Walter - Donald Walter is a U.S. District Court judge in Shreveport, La. He was the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana from 1969 to 1977. He has also served as an adjunct professor on business law and ethics at Centenary College and on the Bankruptcy Administration Committee for the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Judge Stephen M. Orlofsky - Stephen Orlofsky is a U.S. District Court judge in Camden, N.J. He was a federal magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey from 1976 to 1980. He was also a managing partner of the New Jersey office of Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley and the chair of the New Jersey Litigation Department.

Judge Alvin Goldstein - Alvin Goldstein is a principal in the San Francisco firm of Goldstein & Musto, P.C. and a retired California State judge. He served as a judge for the Municipal Court of California and the Superior Court. He was an assistant district attorney for New York County, where he worked in the Rackets Bureau focused on organized crime. He was also a special assistant under former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Judge Gilbert Merritt - Gilbert Merritt is a federal judge in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He served as the chief judge from 1989 to 1996 and is now on senior status. He is a former member of the Judicial Conference of the Unites States and was the chairman of the Executive Committee of Judicial Conference. He was the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee from 1966 to 1969. He has also been the assistant dean of Vanderbilt Law School.

Public Defenders

Barry Portman - Barry Portman is the federal public defender for the Northern District of California. Previously, he worked with the New Orleans Legal Assistance Corporation and then with the Federal Defenders’ Offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has taught on the adjunct faculty at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Richard Coughlin - Richard Coughlin is the federal public defender in the District of New Jersey. He has been an assistant federal public defender and the deputy attorney general in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

Tamara Darweesh - Tamara Darweesh is a Iraqi-American and recently served as a deputy alternate public defender in Los Angeles County. She has also served as public counsel in Los Angeles and as a law clerk in the Office of the State Public Defender in California. She is a fluent Arabic speaker.

Court Administrator

Dan Thomas - Dan Thomas is the clerk of the court and the chief administrative officer for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He has been the clerk of court for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of Kentucky as well as the clerk of the court and master commissioner for the Trigg Country Circuit Court in Kentucky.

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