Andre Birotte Jr., inspector general of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), was nominated by President Barack Obama on Thursday to be U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
If confirmed by the Senate, the 43-year-old son of Haitian immigrants will be the first black U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the nation’s most populous, with responsibility for all federal litigation in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
Obama said Birotte and the six other U.S. Attorney nominees announced on Thursday “have not only the legal experience and aptitude, but the commitment to public service to make exemplary United States Attorneys.”
“I am honored to nominate them and look forward to their continued service on behalf of the American people,” the President said in a statement released by the White House.
Birotte was recommended to Obama by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat after being selected by a bipartisan advisory committee she established.
“Andre Birotte Jr. is an outstanding candidate with strong support in the local community,” Feinstein said.
The U.S. Attorney’s position has been vacant since the September resignation of Thomas P. O’Brien, a career prosecutor who helped increase criminal filings in the office and a wave of new hirings.
Birotte, who works for the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the LAPD, has been inspector general since 2003 and served as assistant inspector general from 2001 to 2003.
He heads a staff of about 30 attorneys, auditors and former law enforcement officials that oversee Police Department investigations. From 1995 to 1999, he was a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Birotte graduated from Tufts University in 1987 and Pepperdine University School of Law in 1991. He started his legal career as a deputy public defender for Los Angeles County, a job he held from 1991 to 1995.
With headquarters in Los Angeles, the local U.S. Attorney’s Office has an authorized staff of about 265 assistant U.S. attorneys, making it the nation’s biggest after the District of Columbia office, which handles both federal and non-federal crimes in Washington.