Region’S U.S. Attorney Retiring First Assistant U.S. Attorney Also Plans To Step Down

The U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington and his top assistant - the chief federal law enforcement officials in the region - are both retiring this summer.

James P. Connelly, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington since 1993, plans to retire on June 16.

James B. Crum, the first assistant U.S. attorney, will retire on July 21 after a lengthy career as a state and federal prosecutor.

Connelly said he’s going back to teach at law school. Crum said he’s heading to the golf course.

Connelly, 72, resigned in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno and President Clinton.

The White House, in concert with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is expected to name an acting U.S. attorney who will serve until a new president takes office in January.

Crum, 58, retires after 31 years in federal law enforcement, including three years as an FBI agent.

He became an assistant U.S. attorney in 1972 after working for two years as a deputy prosecuting attorney for Spokane County.

Connelly said the two departures are coincidental.

“I’m going back to law school, parttime, and slow down a little bit,” Connelly said Wednesday as Crum joined him for the joint announcement.

Connelly retired in December 1992 from the Spokane law firm, Winston Cashatt, which he helped form in 1972. After leaving private practice, Connelly worked as a visiting professor at Gonzaga Law School and as a supervisor in the law school’s legal clinic.

Connelly said he will return to those part-time jobs, teaching dispute resolution at the law school and volunteering at University Legal Services. It has a national reputation for aiding indigent clients.

Connelly supervises a staff of more than three dozen prosecutors and support staff.

He is regarded as a hard worker who keeps abreast of cases filed by his office by regularly reading prosecution memos and reviewing all indictments.

His assistants speak fondly of his credibility, ethical standards and knowledge of the law.

“He’s like the gray-haired senior law partner that’s really wise,” one assistant U.S. attorney said of Connelly.

When he was named the U.S. attorney in 1993 by President Clinton, Connelly followed in the footsteps of his father, Edward W. Connelly, who held the same post from 1942 to 1946.

Jim Connelly said he can recall, as a youth, visiting his father at work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the mid-1940s.

“This job was always a matter of interest to me since my father was the U.S. attorney,” Connelly said.

When he was asked in 1993 if he wanted the presidential appointment, Connelly said he’d “had enough of the sharp edges associated with private practice and wanted to fulfill my desire for public service.”

Connelly said he views the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington “as one of the best law firms in town.”

“It’s made up of highly professional and talented lawyers and clerical support staff, working together, unselfishly, as well as any group of lawyers I’ve ever seen,” Connelly said.

One of the most prominent cases during his term as U.S. attorney, Connelly said, was a cocaine distribution case known as “Doughboy.”

More than three dozen people were arrested in the fall of 1994 and later convicted in what remains the largest cocaine distribution ring busted in the region.

Connelly also recalled the successful prosecution of four domestic terrorists, known as Phineas Priests, who carried out bombings and bank robberies in 1996 in the Spokane Valley.

Crum said high-profile cases he was involved in included the successful prosecution of Al Hegge, president of the Ghost Riders outlaw motorcycle gang, notorious bank robber Kenneth Pendleton and neo-Nazi members known as The Order.