Source: Office of United States Attorneys
GREENSBORO, NC – United States Attorney Sandra J. Hairston announced that she has resigned her position as head of the United States Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of North Carolina (MDNC) and will retire from federal service effective January 18, 2025.
“Serving this district as United States Attorney and as an Assistant United States Attorney has been the honor of my life,” said U.S. Attorney Hairston. “The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often said, ‘The time is always right to do what is right.’ I have done my best to do what is right during my time as a prosecutor, and with the help of dedicated professionals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, I believe we have made our communities safer, more just, and more equitable.”
Ms. Hairston joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the MDNC in 1990. During her 34 years with the Department of Justice, Ms. Hairston served as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and Lead Task Force Attorney in the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Section in the MDNC. She also served as the Professional Responsibility Officer, Ethics Advisor, and Criminal Discovery Coordinator for the district. From April 1994 until June 1996, Ms. Hairston served as Chief of the Criminal Division in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Ms. Hairston was named First Assistant United States Attorney for the MDNC in April 2014, a position she held until November 2021. Ms. Hairston served as Acting United States Attorney for the MDNC from January 14, 2017, until January 3, 2018, and from March 1, 2021, until she was sworn in as United States Attorney on November 23, 2021. Ms. Hairston served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee from March 2022 until June 2023.
Ms. Hairston is a 2002 recipient of the Director’s Award from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for superior performance as an Assistant United States Attorney. In 2015, she received the Peter S. Gilchrist III Award from the North Carolina Bar Association which is given to a prosecutor who exemplifies the highest ideals of the profession. In 2018, she was inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Ms. Hairston is a 1981 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a 1987 graduate of the North Carolina Central University School of Law. She began her legal career in 1987 as an Assistant District Attorney in the Thirteenth (now Fifteenth) Prosecutorial District of North Carolina.
Selected highlights of the U.S. Attorney’s Office accomplishments during Hairston’s tenure include:
- Expanding Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the federal Department of Justice’s premier data-driven, comprehensive anti-gun-violence program, to systematically address rising juvenile crime across the MDNC through community engagement, targeted prevention, intervention and reentry, strategic enforcement, and improved accountability between partners.
- Planning and hosting over 25 re-entry simulations, all designed to share best practices, aid assimilation, and reduce recidivism among inmates returning to society after serving their sentences. Hosting with the NC Department of Adult Correction a reentry simulation “train the trainer” seminar to share best practices and lessons learned with other groups holding simulations.
- Further integrating the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) and Crime Gun Intelligence Centers, in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and police departments in Durham, Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem into the strategic enforcement component of PSN to help solve gun crime incidents and get violent criminals off the street.
- Encouraging and supporting the implementation of the evidence-based Violent Impact Player or “VIP” case screening model in Greensboro and Winston-Salem where law enforcement, probation and prosecutors use objective information to identify VIPs and focus “best efforts” of partnering agencies on the most dangerous “shooters.” VIP has contributed to a reduction in homicides of over 40% in Greensboro and 34% in Winston-Salem from 2023 to 2024, and significant reductions in overall violent crime.
- In 2024, Remy St Felix and 12 other defendants received lengthy prison sentences for their roles in an international conspiracy to break into U.S. citizens’ homes, violently kidnap and assault them, and steal Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.
- In 2024, Marian Hudak was convicted at trial of violating the civil rights of Black and Hispanic citizens by willfully intimidating the victims and interfering with their enjoyment of federally protected activities through both threats of force and actual force.
- In 2022, Antonio Nathaniel Davenport, Jr., and Derrick Lamont Dixon, Jr., received life sentences for the RICO murder of nine-year-old Z’yon Person in Durham in 2019.
- In 2023, Steven Tyler Smith received a 50-year sentence for producing child pornography and Joshua Timothy Taylor received a 60-year sentence for engaging in sex with a minor and producing child pornography.
- Emphasized the prosecution of the most dangerous offenders who exploit children, resulting in the sentencing of 72 defendants with an average sentence of nearly 15 years (179.125 months) and median sentence of 10 years.
- Protected taxpayers and victim rights by collecting more than $25 million in criminal debts and more than $12 million in federal civil debts from 2021 through 2024.
- Partnering with the Civil Rights Division in DOJ’s Combatting Redlining Initiative, leading to a $13.5 million settlement with a national bank to resolve Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act claims.
- Partnering with the Environmental and Natural Resources Division on Clean Air Act litigation resulting in a $10 million consent decree to resolve claims that a local company sold and installed emissions defeat devices.
- In conjunction with the Civil Rights Division, working with the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections to resolve Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act allegations, leading to religious policy changes across the North Carolina prison system that expand the rights of minority faith groups to gather for religious services.
- Recovering more than $10 million for the federal fisc in False Claims Act cases, including allegations of improper kickbacks and medically unnecessary testing.
- Fighting the opioid crisis through both civil Controlled Substances Act enforcement against pharmacies and physicians and expanding access to treatment through enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, including outreach to county jails and medical providers regarding their legal obligations.
- Hosting three United Against Hate outreach events, to empower local communities with information about how to recognize and report hate crimes.
- Resolving fifteen Americans with Disabilities Act cases, including resolutions that require policy changes to ensure that individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing have access to effective communication during medical care.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Galyon will serve as acting U.S. Attorney upon Ms. Hairston’s departure.
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