CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA –United States Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Deputy Director Thomas E. Brandon
presented the Honor Award to Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild
for his investigation and successful prosecution of an individual who waged a
campaign of violence in the greater Sioux City, Iowa community. He received
this award today at the 20th Annual ATF Awards Ceremony held at the agency’s National
Headquarters in Washington D.C. Presenting the award was NBC News Justice
Department Correspondent Louis Alan “Pete” Williams.
The Honor Award given to a select few non-ATF government
officials or individuals from the private sector who have significantly
contributed to ATF’s overall mission through long-standing support,
cooperation, and/or an allocation of human or materiel resources.
Fairchild was involved in an investigation and prosecution
that spanned more than three states and an Indian Reservation, and lasted
almost three years.
Multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies
were involved in the investigation and supported the ultimate successful
prosecution of 13 individuals.
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa,
Kevin W. Techau, stated “We are profoundly proud of Assistant United States
Attorney Forde Fairchild for his tireless managing of the legal aspects of his
complex investigations and prosecutions. The ATF Honor Award could not have
been given to a more deserving prosecutor. He made Sioux City a safer place to
live after putting a career criminal away for life.”
Summary of Facts
In March 2012, gang member Jamal Dean shot two
individuals—one in Sioux City, Iowa and the other in South Sioux City, Nebraska.
While these offenses were being investigated, he was sent to state prison for
an unrelated drug-distribution offense. Dean was released from prison in
December of that year.
On April 2013, Dean, his brother (also a fellow gang member)
and another individual traveled from South Sioux City, Nebraska, to Sioux City,
Iowa where they beat and robbed at gun point a small time drug-dealer. The
threesome retreated to Nebraska after the attack. Again in April, Dean and his
brother traveled from Nebraska to Iowa and back after beating and robbing at
gun point a larger drug dealer.
On April 29, 2013, Dean, in an attempt to escape being
arrested for these crimes, fired eight rounds at Sioux City, Iowa, Police
Officer Kevin McCormick, striking him once in the head with a bullet. Officer
McCormick survived the attack. Dean, with the help of a getaway team (made up
of his friends, family, and fellow gangsters), avoided arrest until early May
2013, when he was arrested by officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety
just 70 miles from Mexico in a car heading south. The obstructive conduct
continued even after Dean’s capture.
Confederates made material false statements to federal
authorities and deleted the contents of their mobile phones and an iPad.
Challenges
The case was a difficult and lengthy investigation, produced
thousands of items of discovery, multiple detention hearings, multiple motions
to dismiss, motions to sever counts and defendants, a contested motion and
hearing regarding the United States’ request for heightened security procedures
at trial, a week-long multidefendant trial, a second multi-defendant trial that
plead out shortly before trial, 12 vigorously contested sentencing hearings,
and a consolidated appeal to the United States Court of Appeals.
The Outcomes
The combined cases resulted in 13 convictions including a
life sentence for Jamal Dean.
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