PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced today a new executive leadership team to lead the Office’s enforcement mission.
“This seasoned leadership team of career public servants will bring to bear an extraordinary breadth and depth of experience and judgment to meet the threats our communities face. Whether addressing gun violence, the flow of fentanyl, opioids and other dangerous drugs, domestic and international terrorism, ruinous financial fraud and schemes, corrupt officials, or the exploitation of our vulnerable communities, each member of this team has dedicated their professional life to seeking and doing justice with integrity and impartiality. Always seeking to do the right thing, the right way, and for the right reasons, they will continue to vigorously and tirelessly work together to protect our communities and to seek justice for victims,” US Attorney Romero said.
Ms. Romero named Assistant US Attorney Nelson ST Thayer, Jr. as First Assistant US Attorney. Mr. Thayer joined the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 1993 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. As a Trial Attorney in the Division’s Criminal Section, he investigated and tried hate crime and law enforcement brutality cases across the country, including US v. Davis, the first capital civil rights prosecution and conviction. In 1998, Mr. Thayer joined the Office as an Assistant US Attorney, prosecuting a wide variety of crimes as a member of the Narcotics Unit, and in 2002, transferred to the New Jersey US Attorney’s Office, where he served as a line prosecutor and then as Deputy Chief of its public corruption unit. In 2005, Mr. Thayer took a leave of absence to prosecute war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, where he spent six years prosecuting and convicting at trial eight high-level Bosnian Serb military commanders for their roles in the 1995 genocide of over seven thousand Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, the largest massacre on European soil since The Holocaust. Upon returning to the New Jersey US Attorney’s Office in 2011, Mr. Thayer served as Attorney-in-Charge of the Trenton branch office, then as Deputy US Attorney, responsible for overseeing the office’s mission in New Jersey’s twelve middle and southern counties. In 2015, Mr. Thayer returned to the Office where he served in the National Security and Cyber Crime unit. Mr. Thayer has received numerous Department of Justice and agency awards, including the Department of Justice Director’s Award twice, the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force Director’s Award, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director’s Award, and the Department of Justice John Marshall Award . Mr. Thayer earned a BA, cum laude with distinction in the major, from Yale University, and his JD as a Public Interest Scholar from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Ms. Romero named Assistant US Attorney Richard P. Barrett as Chief of the Criminal Division. Mr. Barrett joined the Office in 1990, and has served in a variety of supervisory positions, including Chief of the Firearms unit; Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for Violent Crime, Firearms and Narcotics; and Chief of the Corruption, Civil Rights and Labor Racketeering unit. Prior to joining the Office, Mr. Barrett served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office for five years in the Rape Prosecution unit. Mr. Barrett has prosecuted and tried numerous notable public corruption cases, and recently received the Department of Justice’s John Marshall Award for his work in United States v. Linda Weston, et al. Weston and her four co-defendants were convicted of racketeering and historically significant violations of the Shepard/Byrd/Hate Crime Act for targeting mentally disabled victims over a period of ten years while stealing their disability and Social Security payments; beating them; confining them in locked closets, basements, and attics; depriving them of adequate food and medical care, and directly causing the deaths of two, who died while in captivity. Mr. Barrett is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University School of Law, where he teaches courses in Corruption Law and Policy, International Criminal Law, and Trial Advocacy. He is the co-author of Lessons of Yugoslavia Rape Trials: A Role for Conspiracy Law in International Tribunals, 88 Minnesota Law Review 30 (2003). Mr Barrett earned a BA from Temple University, and his JD from Temple University School of Law, where he was on the Law Review.
US Attorney Romero also named two veteran prosecutors in the Office as Deputy Criminal Chiefs who will report to Mr. Barrett.
US Attorney Thomas R. Perricone was named Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for Narcotics and Violent Crime. Mr. Perricone joined the Office in 1994, most recently serving as Chief of the National Security and Cyber Crime unit since 2018, and is the Office’s Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council Coordinator. He previously served as Chief of Narcotics and Organized Crime from 2005 to 2018. Mr. Perricone has prosecuted and tried numerous significant cases in the Office, including complex fraud, narcotics, and violent crime, including murder for hire, and received by the Department of Justice’s Director’s Award. Prior to joining the Office, Mr. Perricone was an Assistant District Attorney in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office for eleven years, the last four of which were in the Homicide unit. For the past fifteen years, Mr. Perricone has also been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, teaching Trial Advocacy and coaching its Mock Trial Team. Mr. Perricone has also been an instructor at the National College of District Attorneys and at the National Advocacy Center. He earned a BA from Princeton University and his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Ms. Romero named Assistant US Attorney Christine E. Sykes as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for White Collar Crime. Ms. Sykes joined the Office in 1997, serving in the Organized Crime Strike Force for eleven years. She has most recently served as the Deputy Chief of the National Security and Cyber Crime unit. Ms. Sykes previously served for eight years as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for Narcotics, Organized Crime, and Violent Crime, and as Senior Litigation Counsel. Ms. Sykes has prosecuted numerous organized criminal enterprises, including Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra, outlaw motorcycle gangs, national and international narcotics traffickers and money launderers, and murder for hire conspiracies. Ms. Sykes has received the Attorney General Award for Special Achievement, and the FBI Director’s Award, among others. Ms. Sykes began her career with the Department of Justice in 1992 as an Honors Attorney in the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs Section, and then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia. She earned her BA from Pennsylvania State University, and her JD from Temple University School of Law.
Assistant US Attorney Gregory David will continue to serve as Chief of the Civil Division. Prior to his selection as Civil Chief in 2018, Mr. David led several significant civil cases on behalf of the Office, including a multi-district False Claims Act investigation that resulted in a $150 million settlement with Amedisys, the largest DOJ recovery ever against a home health company. Mr. David has been involved in numerous other affirmative civil enforcement resolutions, and has also defended the United States in a variety of different cases that the Office handles. Mr. David is a member of the Civil Chief’s Working Group, a component of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, and also chairs its Frauds Subcommittee. Mr. David earned a BA with high distinction from the University of Virginia and his JD, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Law Review and Order of the Coif. He began his legal career serving as a law clerk for the Honorable Anthony J. Scirica, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then worked as a litigator for the Philadelphia law firm Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller before joining the office.
Two experienced Deputy Civil Chiefs will continue to report to Mr. David
Susan R. Becker is the Deputy Chief for Defensive Litigation. She joined the Office in 2002, and has served as Deputy Chief since 2016. She has taught numerous appeal writing classes at the National Advocacy Center and regularly teaches deposition skills and tort law programs for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. Prior to joining the Office, Ms. Becker clerked for the Honorable Harvey Bartle, III, US District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, then practiced labor and employment law at Ballard Spahr, LLP. Ms. Becker earned a BA from Williams College and her JD from George Washington Law School.
Charlene Keller Fullmer is the Deputy Chief for Affirmative Litigation. Ms. Fullmer joined the Office in 2007, and has served as Deputy Chief since 2014. Ms. Fullmer led the team that investigated off-label promotion by Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, resulting in a $2.2 billion global settlement, the largest settlement for a single drug. Ms. Fullmer also served on the team that investigated off-label promotion and kickback allegations against Pfizer, leading to a $2.3 billion civil and criminal settlement, at the time the largest health care fraud settlement in DOJ’s history. For these efforts, Ms. Fullmer was awarded the Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention, among others. She is also the recipient of the Attorney General Award for Exceptional Service. Ms. Fullmer began her federal service career in the Honors Program in 1996, and served as an Attorney Advisor for the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, followed by six years in private practice at Duane Morris, LLP. Ms. Fullmer earned a BA, cum laude, from Lehigh University, and her JD, cum laude, from Temple University School of Law, where she was on the Law Review.
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