Big cases marked Michael Moore’s tenure as U.S. attorney in the midstate

When Michael Moore was sworn in as Middle Georgia’s chief federal prosecutor in 2010, he came into office with a set of priorities.

Under his leadership, the office targeted violent criminals in particular, and he also tried to keep rogue corporations and corrupt government officials in check.

“It’s a unique job,” Moore said recently as he prepared to leave office. “You come in knowing that your time is limited.”

Moore, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama, resigned last month.

G.F. “Pete” Peterman III has been named interim U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia until the president makes a new appointment. The district runs from Georgia’s southwest corner up through Macon and Athens to the South Carolina border.

It’s unclear whether Obama will name a replacement for Moore or if the position will remain vacant until after the 2016 presidential election.

Looking back on his time in office, Moore said he’s proud of the big cases his office has handled, but he’s also proud of working with a great group of people who will remain.

“It’s really an honor to stand up and say that you represent the United States,” he said. “It’s a great honor to work side by side with a group of people who believe that.”

BIG CASES

Soon after taking office, Moore established a list of goals.

Among them was to identify and prosecute cases that could result in forfeitures, moving child sex cases through the system faster and putting priority on white-collar crime and corruption while making a commitment to make an immediate, local impact.

During the last five years, prosecutors’ Civil Enforcement Unit has increased recoveries by 8,000 percent, Moore said.

Examples of the unit’s cases include false claims billed to Medicare and fraudulent double billing.

“You’re talking about being able to run this office for about six years based on the recovery over the course of a year,” Moore said. “The goal is to get that money back to the taxpayer, and we’ve done that.”

Local authorities were involved in the recent arrest of 29 people charged in a multistate sex-trafficking operation that involved the importation of Hispanic women into the United States. Fifteen women were rescued in a raid associated with the case.

Moore’s office also was involved in the prosecution of Peanut Corporation of America executives who were sentenced for their roles in the shipping of salmonella-tainted products that led to a 2009 salmonella poisoning in 46 states and nine deaths.

The corporation’s former owner and president was sentenced to 28 years in prison earlier this year in the longest sentence issued to an executive in a food safety case in U.S. history.

“We didn’t just go after the corporation. We went after the individuals,” Moore said.

Another case prosecuted in Moore’s district resulted in a subsidiary of ConAgra Foods Inc., which has a manufacturing plant in Sylvester, agreeing earlier this year to pay $11.2 million in connection with a shipment of contaminated peanut butter, the largest-ever fine imposed in a food safety case, according to the Department of Justice.

Other examples of white-collar crimes prosecuted in the district have included a Probate Court judge convicted of theft, prison guards accused of beating inmates and a bank employee charged with misappropriating customers’ funds.

“It’s making sure the rules and the laws of the justice system apply to everybody, and we expect everybody to follow the law,” Moore said.

While addressing violent crime, prosecutors have taken a “scalpel approach” toward drug cases, going after bigger defendants and organizations to stop the supply from coming in, he said.

WORKING TOGETHER

Moore said he took the role of being the “gatekeeper” for cases going into the court system seriously, making sure his office’s power  was harnessed when necessary and not abused.

“People talk about the wheels of justice turning slowly. Those wheels are also powerful,” he said. “The job of the U.S. attorney is to make sure that the wheels of justice turn in the right direction.”

Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said he and Moore formed a “great working relationship” and he’s going to be missed.

Soon after Moore took office, he loaned resources for a truancy initiative in Bibb County schools that involved a round-up of students found skipping school, Davis said.

“It showed that he was really concerned about this community,” he said.

Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig said he and Moore “enjoyed a very good working relationship that allowed our offices to work closely together and coordinate our prosecution resources and efforts.”

Hartwig said federal prosecutors were helpful in Houston County prosecutors’ successful murder prosecution of Devasko Lewis, a former Cordele trucking company owner convicted in 2015 of hiring a man to kill a federal witness. Lewis killed the witness’s nephew by mistake and was sentenced in April to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“U.S. Attorney Moore was always committed to keeping the citizens of Middle Georgia safe and did everything he could to accomplish that goal,” Hartwig said. “State prosecutors in the Middle District will certainly miss having Michael Moore as our top federal prosecutor.”

NEXT CHAPTER

Moore began work this week at Pope McGlamry, a law firm with offices in Atlanta and Columbus, that handles civil disputes ranging from to business fraud to large product liability cases and those involving wrongful death.

Recently, lawyers at the firm won an $11 million verdict in a product liability case involving a metal-on-metal hip device.

When the president appointed Moore to his post, he was a privately practicing attorney in Houston County.

He previously worked in the Houston County District Attorney’s Office, rising to the position of chief assistant district attorney before leaving for private practice in 1997.

Moore also won a special election runoff in 2002 to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Sonny Perdue when Perdue resigned to campaign for governor, but later he lost a bid for re-election to Ross Tolleson.

Moore, who said he’s missed being in the courtroom, said he’s looking forward to his next chapter.

“To me, the practice of law is about helping people, trying to do some good and taking it personally,” he said.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.

This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Big cases marked Michael Moore’s tenure as U.S. attorney in the midstate."