Lee Solomon, Camden County (NJ) prosecutor and a member of the NDAA board, has resigned to oversee federal law enforcement in southern New Jersey in a newly created position in the office of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Creation of the post marks a federal effort, according to the local Courier-Post newspaper, “to build a more potent presence in South Jersey.” Solomon, whom the Courier-Post described as a “highly regarded prosecutor, known for helping turn around Camden’s shattered police department and arresting one of the state’s most notorious murder suspects,” said at a news conference announcing his appointment: “Our goal is not just to prosecute the federal crimes, but to work with law enforcement at the local, county and state level.”

Robert N. “Rob” Kepple is the new executive director of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, succeeding Tom Krampitz, who has joined the Texas Motor Speedway as general counsel and director of public relations. Kepple had been general counsel of the association since 1990. Prior to joining the association, Kepple had been assistant DA of Harris County, Texas, and had held a variety of other prosecutorial positions. He also had been a member of a general litigation team at a major Houston law firm.

After 23 years as a prosecutor, 10 of them as Flathead County (Montana) county attorney, Thomas J. Esch is stepping down. A member of the NDAA Board of Directors and a member of the Executive Committee during Kevin Meenan’s presidency, Esch told NDAA colleagues that at 44, “if I don’t make a change now, I might never do it.” Esch added that he made his decision to leave prosecution, probably for private practice, “not without regret.” Tom Esch started his career in prosecution as a deputy DA in the office of former NDAA president StuVanMeveren, DA in Fort Collins, Colorado. He moved to Kalispell, Montana, in 1984 to serve as deputy Flathead County attorney and became DA in 1992 when his boss was named to a judgeship.

Michael Th. Johnson, Merrimack County (Concord), New Hampshire, county attorney and a former NDAA board member, has resigned, along with his wife, Assistant Merrimack County Attorney Susan Alfin. They joined the war crimes prosecution staff of the International Court of Justice (World Court) in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Phyllis Gardner, an assistant attorney general of Shelby County, TN, and an NDAA associate director, has left prosecution to become a judge of the General Sessions Court of Shelby County.

Thomas Deen, prosecuting attorney of Arkansas’s 10th Judicial District (Monticello), has been appointed to the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Criminal Practice, succeeding Gordon Webb, prosecuting attorney of the 14th Judicial District (Harrison), who had served three years on the committee.

A high-profile long-running Florida murder case for which Harry Shorstein, state attorney for Florida’s Fourth Judicial District (Jacksonville), was special prosecutor by appointment of two successive governors, was the subject of a special program by the NBC news magazine Dateline, in cooperation with Court TV. The defendant was Dr. William Sybers, medical examiner of Panama City, Florida, who was charged with killing his wife in 1991. Sybers reported that his wife died at home on May 16, 1991, but refused to allow an autopsy. He had been telling friends and colleagues that his wife had been complaining of chest pains. Meanwhile, Dr. Sybers had been having an affair with another woman, whom he married after his first wife’s death. This was a complicated case involving very intensive testing, a lengthy and unsuccessful court battle over a request to exhume the victim’s body in Iowa and Frye hearings. The trial started on March 4, 2002, almost 10 years after Mrs. Sybers’s death and lasted three weeks. Shorstein was able to prove that Dr. Sybers injected his wife with succinyl choline which caused her death. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder and the judge imposed the jury’s recommended sentence of life without possibility of parole.

Michael Duggan, prosecuting attorney of Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan, and a Detroit law firm (Butzel Long) have formed a partnership in which associates at the law firm serve a 90-day rotation as assistant prosecutors. The associates receive trial experience and the prosecutor’s office receives free, motivated legal assistance. Duggan describes the partnership as “a win-win situation for both parties.

Michael Harson, DA of Louisiana's 15th Judicial District (Lafayette), has been elected president of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association for the 2002-2003 year. Van H. Kyzar, DA of the 10th Judicial District (Natchitoches), was elected first vice president.