Hiland planning to leave U.S. attorney job Dec. 31

Cody Hiland, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, speaks Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020 during a press conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)
Cody Hiland, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, speaks Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020 during a press conference at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Staci Vandagriff)

Cody Hiland, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced Thursday that he has tendered his resignation effective at the end of the year.

Hiland, who was appointed by outgoing President Donald Trump, will be leaving office on Dec. 31, well ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who will likely name new U.S. attorneys across the country.

Hiland told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that he had notified his staff of 29 assistant U.S. attorneys and 30 administrative employees by email on Tuesday of his decision.

Also announced Thursday was the appointment of First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross to succeed Hiland as the acting U.S. attorney until a nominee is named by the new president. Ross went to work for Hiland in February 2018 from the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Texas.

Hiland praised his staff for the work done during the past three years, which he said had "moved the needle for public safety in the community we call home." He said the assistant U.S. attorneys and office staff members were responsible for an 83% rise in cases filed from 2017 to 2018, going from 282 cases to 516, then rising another 28% to 659 cases filed in 2019.

[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/1225hiland/]

Hiland, 48, was nominated to the position by Trump on June 29, 2017, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Sept. 28, 2017. He was sworn in on Oct. 10, 2017, by U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes, succeeding Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick C. Harris.

He said he decided to leave his position now rather than wait to see if or when he would be replaced by the new administration, saying that is a prerogative that most incoming administrations exercise.

"That's part of it and we knew that going in," Hiland said. "We always knew that if the president was not reelected that the new president would want his own administration and that's just part of the process."

Hiland graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in 1993 and from the William H. Bowen School of Law in 1998. Despite earning his law degree, he said it was never his intention at that time to practice law.

"I went to law school because I got a political science degree and there aren't a lot of jobs in political science out there," he said. "I was really interested in public policy and I wanted to work in the public policy arena."

Hiland said he first went to work for former Gov. Mike Huckabee as a legal intern, then joined the law firm of former Arkansas House Speaker Herschel Cleveland, but was sidelined by back surgery. After he recovered from the surgery, Hiland said, he returned to Little Rock and went to work for the Public Service Commission.

Deciding to take a dip into electoral politics, Hiland said he ran for state representative in 2006, losing by just under 400 votes to Democrat Eddie Hawkins.

"It was a terrible year to run as a Republican," he mused.

BOOZMAN PHONE CALL

In 2010, Hiland successfully ran as a Republican for prosecuting attorney of the 20th Judicial Circuit, encompassing Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties. He was reelected in 2014 and served until he was tapped for the U.S. attorney position in 2017.

"I got a phone call from Sen. [John] Boozman's office gauging my interest and asking me to come talk to him," he said. "At the time, Little Rock was having a lot of trouble with violent crime and things like that, and I think Sen. Boozman was interested in having a U.S. attorney with prosecutorial experience at the state level to focus on violent crime."

Upon taking office, Hiland focused on a Justice Department initiative called Project Safe Neighborhoods. In addition to cases involving public corruption, child exploitation, drug trafficking, and other cases under his purview, he encouraged prosecuting attorneys around the state to allow his office to prosecute certain gun-possession cases as federal crimes.

That set the tone of the next three years as the office began prosecuting more cases involving felons accused of possession of firearms. The Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. attorney's office caseload rose from 19th among the 94 U.S. district offices in 2017 to sixth in the nation the following year.

Hiland said the staff took the increased caseload in stride.

"I've got to hand it to my staff," he said. "We ask a lot of them and it's no small thing to increase your caseload by 83% in one year. They did it with a spirit of believing what they do matters, and you just can't ask more from a group of people."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Bragg said that upon his arrival Hiland communicated his priorities to the staff with an overarching view of the results he hoped to achieve, which she said gained rapid acceptance.

"We knew what his bottom line was going to be and that was to reduce violent crime through our cases," Bragg said. "It really had not ever been done before and even now I consider it to be an innovative approach."

The effect was almost immediate, as reports of violent crime in Little Rock dropped from 3,276 in 2017 to 2,846 in 2018, a 13% dip and the first decline noted in four years. The following year, 2019, violent-crime reports rose 5.66% to 3,007, although the total crime index declined for the second year in a row.

Ross said Hiland's focus on violent felons was welcomed by law enforcement officials after a number of high-profile shootings in Little Rock and increases in violent crime in other cities around the district.

"We had just come through a year where two different 2-year-olds were murdered while riding in the backseat of mother's or grandmother's cars here in Little Rock," Ross said. "The homicide rate had increased for the past couple of years here, and then in the summer of 2017, there was the mass shooting at Power Ultra Lounge here just two blocks from this office."

ASSISTANCE A 'GODSEND'

Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the 6th Judicial Circuit, the largest in the state encompassing Pulaski and Perry counties, called the assistance provided by Hiland's office a "godsend" by intervening in cases that state law was inadequate to address.

Jegley said even the most violent felons convicted in state court on firearms charges often serve as little as one or two years before being paroled back into the community, whereas in the federal system, which has no provision for parole, felons convicted of gun possession would serve at least 85% of their sentence, the minimum of which is five years and, depending on criminal history, can exceed 15 years.

Jegley said the result was that starting in 2018, police began to encounter fewer felons on the streets carrying guns.

"Word of that gets out on the street and I know it from talking to street cops," he said. "They don't want to do federal time."

Ross, whose appointment expires Nov. 26, 2021, or when a presidential nominee to the position is confirmed by the Senate, said his plan for the office is to stay the course and continue the emphasis on gun-possession cases.

There's no doubt we've got a well-oiled machine at this point and we'll leave it to the next U.S. attorney to decide whether or not to keep it going, but there's no doubt I'm going to keep it going," he said.

Hiland said he is satisfied he is leaving the office in good hands but was close-mouthed about his future plans.

"I'll have to get a job because I have to feed my family," he said. "That's my main focus right now."

Cody Hiland holds his hand on a Bible held by his wife, Jana, as he takes the oath of office to become U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in a Jan. 26 ceremony administered by U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller. Hiland announced Thursday that he is resigning at the end of the year. More photos at arkansasonline.com/1225hiland/.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)
Cody Hiland holds his hand on a Bible held by his wife, Jana, as he takes the oath of office to become U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in a Jan. 26 ceremony administered by U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller. Hiland announced Thursday that he is resigning at the end of the year. More photos at arkansasonline.com/1225hiland/. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe)
Jonathan Ross, currently the First Assistant United States Attorney, will be the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas beginning Jan. 1, 2021. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Dale Ellis)
Jonathan Ross, currently the First Assistant United States Attorney, will be the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas beginning Jan. 1, 2021. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Dale Ellis)

Upcoming Events