Friday, August 26, 2016

ATF Recognizes AUSA Forde Fairchild For Excellence



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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