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Sunday, October 09, 2011
Ind. Courts - "Hogsett brings more muscle to crimefighting: U.S. attorney boosts Evansville efforts"
Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier & Press has the long story today -- some quotes:
INDIANAPOLIS — After one year on the job, Joe Hogsett has elevated both the profile of the U.S. attorney's office and the frequency with which the office is using its authority to prosecute gun and drug crimes on the federal level.Hogsett, the U.S. attorney for Indiana's southern district, has set ambitious goals in hopes of underscoring the federal prosecutor's role in Indiana's law enforcement community.
"I want the number of criminal prosecutions to increase, particularly in those that involve violence. I want the number of defendants charged to go up. I want the number of convictions to increase," Hogsett said.
It's a set of goals that involves him invoking the office's power to pursue violent criminals at a markedly higher rate than his predecessors.
It's also required Hogsett, a former Indiana secretary of state with a long background in Democratic politics, to employ his old skills to increase his new office's profile and its level of contact with local law enforcement officials. * * *
Hogsett himself has included monthly trips to the Evansville office on his packed travel schedule.
That schedule has included visits to all 60 counties in the southern district. Hogsett said he tries to travel at least one day each week, and when he does, he said he typically schedules several stops.
Many places, he said, local officials tell him they've never met a U.S. attorney before.
"It amazed me as I would talk to friends through Indiana how little people knew of what the U.S. attorney did at all – and I'm talking about lawyers and law enforcement," he said. "What the profile has done is put a face on a very important commitment."
Eric Williams, the Vanderburgh County sheriff, said local law enforcement officials and their federal counterparts in the U.S. attorney's office, the U.S. Marshal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others have traditionally avoided turf battles.
"We feel like we work really, really well together. We each have different things to bring to the table when it comes to putting bad guys in jail," he said.
What's different about Hogsett, Williams said, is the amount of contact he has with local officials.
"I think he is doing a very good job of communicating and trying to build cooperative and collaborative relationships with local law enforcement," he said.
"I have found him to be very willing to work with us on issues, and he's been very inclusive of us."
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 9, 2011 03:10 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts