U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach holds swearing-in ceremony at Cleveland school

By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
October 26, 2009, 1:46PM

Photo by Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fighting public corruption and upholding civil rights will be among Steven Dettelbach's priorities as the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Dettelbach, 43, was privately sworn in as U.S. attorney in September but chose Martin Luther King Jr. High School at East 71st Street and Hough Avenue in Cleveland for a public ceremony this morning. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown administered the oath of office. Dettelbach selected the school because of its emphasis on law and municipal careers. He plans to begin an internship program between his office and the school.

Among the morning's speakers was 16-year-old sophomore Dontea Gresham, who proclaimed his intention to one day run for U.S. president. Dontea reminded the few hundred invited guests of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous admonition, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dettelbach comes to his new job with extensive civil rights experience, having served in the criminal section of the Justice Department's civil rights division. One noteworthy case he prosecuted involved Thai immigrants brought illegally to the United States and enslaved in a southern California sweatshop. Dettelbach will serve as chairman of the subcommittee on civil rights for the U.S. Attorney General's advisory committee.

As a former federal prosecutor in Cleveland, Dettelbach helped prosecute Nate Gray, a close friend to former Cleveland Mayor Michael White. Gray was convicted of paying bribes to public officials in several cities, including former East Cleveland Mayor Emanuel Onunwor. Dettelbach has been recused from his office's ongoing probe of public corruption in Cuyahoga County because his former firm, Baker & Hostetler, represented parties involved in the investigation. His pick for first assistant U.S. Attorney, Carol Rendon, will likely have to do the same when she comes on board because of her representation of probe targets at her firm. In his speech, Dettelbach promised to root out public corruption to ensure taxpayer money is spent "on the best product, not someone's best friend."

While there were plenty of glowing comments about Dettelbach, friend and former federal prosecutor Craig Morford offered up some lighter insight. He called Dettelbach "a bit of a goofball" who took his job seriously, but not himself. He recalled a story from Dettelbach's former Harvard Law School roommate who said Dettelbach once recorded the sound of a vacuum cleaner to play while going to bed because the white noise helped him sleep.
Dettelbach went to Dartmouth College before entering Harvard Law School, where he became friends with another future lawyer named Barack Obama. Dettelbach did not stay in touch with Obama over the years, but he did become active in his presidential campaign.