THOMAS P. O'BRIEN, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
|
|
Thomas P. O'Brien was nominated to be the United States Attorney for the Central District of California by President George W. Bush on July 12, 2007. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on October 4, 2007, and was sworn in as United States Attorney the next day. As the senior federal law enforcement official in the Central District of California, Mr. O'Brien is responsible for all federal criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as all civil matters involving the United States, in the largest federal district in the country, encompassing seven counties and more than 18 million residents.
Prior to being selected as the United States Attorney, Mr. O'Brien served for more than two years as the Chief of the Criminal Division in the United States Attorney's Office. Before that, he was Chief of the office's Civil Rights Section, where he investigated and prosecuted federal hate crimes, racially motivated murders, human trafficking violations, and police misconduct cases. Mr. O'Brien has received numerous awards from the law enforcement agencies he has worked with, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of State, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, and the Los Angeles Police Department. He received the 2007 Anti-Defamation League Pacific Southwest Region's Helene and Joseph Sherwood Prize for combating hate. In October 2007, he received the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service - the highest award given by the Attorney General - for his role in investigating and prosecuting street gang members who committed hate-crime murders of African-Americans in Northeast Los Angeles.
Mr. O'Brien is a former Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County, where he was assigned to the Hardcore Gang Division for more than five years. During that time, he tried approximately 65 cases, including dozens of gang murder cases, as well as cases involving allegations of rape, assault, kidnaping, car-jacking, counterfeiting, and narcotics trafficking. He was named Prosecutor of the Month in July 2000 by the Los Angeles County Association of Deputy District Attorneys.
Mr. O'Brien graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1981, and from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1993, where he was an Associate Editor of the San Diego Law Review and received his degree with honors. He has accumulated 2,000 flight hours as a Radar Intercept Officer in the F-14 "Tomcat" fighter aircraft, and is a graduate of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons ("Top Gun") School.