http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11701342.htm

Posted on Sat, May. 21, 2005

SOUTH FLORIDA

U.S. attorney to resign in June

U.S. Attorney Marcos D. Jiménez says he will step down and return to private practice after serving nearly three years as South Florida's top law enforcement officer.

BY JAY WEAVER AND NOAKI SCHWARTZ

jweaver@herald.com

U.S. Attorney Marcos D. Jiménez, whose tenure had its highs and lows in a crime-fighting era defined by antiterrorism, said Friday he will resign next month as South Florida's top law enforcement officer.

Jiménez, 45, said he wants to return to private practice to earn more money to support his family.

''For family reasons, I've got to go,'' Jiménez, a father of three school-age girls, told The Herald.

Jiménez, who earns about $140,000 a year as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, will leave office June 10 to join the Miami law firm Kenny Nachwalter, which specializes in civil and commercial litigation.

His interim replacement is likely to be Tom Mulvihill, the first assistant U.S. attorney, though that choice will be made by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before Jiménez steps down.

President Bush will pick his permanent replacement in a process that could take about nine months. Among the possible candidates: Mulvihill; Paul Huck Jr., a deputy state attorney general and son of a federal judge; Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Nucci; and former federal prosecutor Peter Prieto, executive partner at Holland & Knight's Miami office.

But the coveted position is likely to draw dozens of applicants with sharp Republican credentials.

The Cuban-born Jiménez, who took office in August 2002, replacing U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, told his staff Friday afternoon that he was leaving because of ''family obligations.'' He expressed pride in his office's achievements in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

SHIFTING FOCUS

His 225-lawyer office and other federal agencies in the southern district, stretching from Fort Pierce to Key West, shifted their focus and resources to preventing another terrorist strike and stopping illegal immigrants from entering the country.

''It has really been a dream come true for me to have the opportunity to serve the community and to work with such a dedicated and talented group of people as the attorneys and support staff of this office,'' Jiménez said at the U.S. Attorney's Office in downtown Miami.

``We have gone through some difficult times and I just want to thank all of you because you inspired me, challenged me, taught me and became my friends.''

Jiménez said he was proudest of his office's prosecutions of Colombian drug cartels, healthcare fraud, sexual predators and alien smuggling, including Cuban migrants.

BUSIEST OFFICE

The U.S. Attorney's Office in South Florida has always been known as one of the busiest jurisdictions in the country, but prosecutions of federal crimes dropped in the jurisdiction in recent years -- especially public corruption -- in the wake of the war on terrorism.

''We had a tremendous shift of resources at the FBI from narcotics to counterterrorism,'' Mulvihill said. ``There was a similar shift at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in looking at who was coming into the country.''

State Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, said Jiménez had to juggle extraordinary new priorities in the post-Sept. 11 climate.

''He showed a lot wisdom and a lot of skills in managing these competing demands,'' said Gelber, whose wife is a Miami federal prosecutor. ``He had to transform the counterterrorism office from a cottage unit to a preeminent unit.''

PUBLIC CRITICISM

But Jiménez acknowledged his office drew public criticism, too, including the prosecution of Miami-Dade teachers' union boss Pat Tornillo, who was convicted on charges of stealing money from his colleagues. Many Miami-Dade teachers and residents thought his plea deal was too lenient.

''If there was criticism, we did what we could to ensure that I would take the hits, and I took my fair share of them, especially during the fun Pat Tornillo days,'' Jiménez told his staff.

After the teachers' union boss was caught using union dues as a personal piggy bank, the U.S. attorney's office allowed the disgraced Tornillo to serve less time in prison.

Because of his declining health, Tornillo was ordered to serve 27 months in prison and pay back an estimated $1 million.

STRONG CRITIC

Among critics of Jiménez: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, the former Miami-Dade County police director. He blasted Jiménez for being ''very weak'' compared to his predecessor.

''Lewis was a prosecutor,'' Alvarez said. ``He wanted a challenge and was always asking what's out there and worked very closely with locals in a team effort.

``Quite frankly, Marcos Jiménez was a disappointment, especially because there was so much to be done.''

Alvarez, who built his reputation on expanding the Miami-Dade police department's public corruption unit, brought a number of cases to the U.S. Attorney's Office but was often disappointed by the outcome.

In 2004 the police department stopped working with the U.S. Attorney's Office over a critical corruption investigation at Miami International Airport.

For three years a task force of police and federal agents investigated whether the prime contractor of the airport's food and beverage concession used minority-owned front companies to channel money to political friends of then-Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and county commissioners.

Frustrated by what he called needless delays, Alvarez eventually pulled his detectives out of the investigation.

AGGRESSIVE WORK

Jiménez's office did aggressively prosecute 13 Miami police officers charged with conspiring to cover up four questionable shootings by planting guns at crime scenes where three people were killed. He inherited the controversial case from his predecessor, Lewis.

At two trials, former Miami cops William Hames and John Mervolion, who cut plea deals for probationary sentences, testified against 11 fellow officers. In the end, seven of the 11 officers were convicted of conspiring to obstruct justice.

Miami defense lawyer Bill Matthewman, who won acquittals for one Miami officer in that case and a subsequent conspiracy trial, said he and his defense brethren were not impressed with Jiménez's tenure.

Matthewman said Jimenez's office -- pushed by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft -- pursued unwarranted federal death penalty cases, offered little cooperation in plea deals and asked defendants to waive their appellate rights.

Said Matthewman: ``I don't think the defense bar will be shedding any tears over his resignation.''