The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Federal prosecutor from area honored as outstanding federal employee
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Sullivan of Newbury Township lauded
A Newbury Township man who works as a federal prosecutor in Northeast Ohio has been honored for his work in preventing and prosecuting crimes involving the exploitation of children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Sullivan recently was named as a winner of an Arthur S. Flemming Award, which recognizes outstanding federal government employees.
Sullivan, who serves as senior litigation counsel for the United States Attorney’s Office Northern District of Ohio, received one of 12 Flemming Awards for 2017. The Flemming Awards were established in 1948 and are presented by the George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration in Washington, D.C.
The Trachtenberg School and Arthur S. Flemming Awards Commission annually honor a dozen winners in five categories: legal achievement; leadership and/or management; social science, clinical trials and translational research; applied science and engineering; and basic science.
Past award recipients include Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut and first man to walk on the moon; former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; former Sen. Elizabeth Dole; former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan; and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. The last time a Flemming Award was presented to an employee of any U.S. Attorney’s Office was in 2011.
“It was an honor to be nominated by (U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman) and selected for the award and very humbling to share a stage with so many extraordinary award winners,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan was honored for his highly successful prosecution of child exploitation cases. He has gained a national reputation for his aggressive prosecution of these offenders, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Ohio stated in a news release.
One of those cases involved Joseph B. Haggerty, a Canadian man arrested in 2017 at a park in Rocky River. Haggerty, 50, was sentenced in 2018 to more than 15 years in prison for production of child pornography. Prior to his sentencing, he pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor.
Sullivan also prosecuted Roland A. Wolfe of Cleveland, who was sentenced in 2018 to 24 years in prison for child pornography crimes.
Wolfe, 53, received the prison term after pleading guilty to receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, and having a computer that contained images of child sexual abuse.
However, the news release went on to state that Sullivan’s “greatest contribution may well be his role in the implementation and promotion of a new investigative protocol for child pornography cases that has been incredibly successful in Northern Ohio and has been replicated across the country.”
“This award is a testament to the many years Mike has spent pursuing predators and sticking up for our most vulnerable victims,” Herdman said. “Mike is absolutely the best that the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s community, and the Northern District of Ohio has to offer. I’m very glad he’s on our side and the side of our nation’s child victims.”