Friday, June 5, 2015
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Senate Committee Approves Eileen Decker Nomination To Be U.S. Attorney for Central District
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday unanimously approved the nomination of Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Eileen M. Decker to be U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Decker was nominated by President Obama in February on the recommendation of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. If confirmed, she would succeed Andre Birotte, who was appointed to the district bench.
In a written statement, Feinstein told the committee that Decker has “exemplary” qualifications and urged her swift confirmation.
“Through her work as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Mayor, Ms. Decker earned the respect of law enforcement and the legal community from all across the Central District of California,” the senator told the committee. “I believe Eileen Decker is well qualified to be the next U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.”
Decker left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2009 to serve as deputy mayor for Homeland Security and Public Safety under then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and stayed in the post under current Mayor Eric Garcetti. She advises the mayor on matters involving the Police Department, Fire Department, and Emergency Management Department.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and Sheriff Jim McDonnell have endorsed her for the U.S. attorney post.
Prior to her appointment as deputy mayor, Decker served for 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney. Eleven years of that service was in management, including the posts of chief of the National Security Section, deputy chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Section, and deputy chief of the Organized Crime Strike Force.
Before joining the government, she was a civil litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. She holds undergraduate and law degrees from New York University and a master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security in Monterey, for which she wrote her thesis on the State Department’s “foreign terrorist organization” list.
She clerked after law school for U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor of the Central District, now retired.
The Judiciary Committee yesterday also approved the nomination of Magistrate Judge Dale Drozd to be district judge for the Eastern District of California. Drozd, a graduate of San Diego State University and UCLA law school, would fill a seat that has been vacant since Judge Anthony Ishii took senior status in 2012.
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