Kevin V. Ryan
{{short description|American lawyer}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Kevin V. Ryan
| office = United States Attorney for the Northern District of California
| image = Kevin Ryan.jpg
| width = 150px
| nominator = George W. Bush
| termend = 2007
| termstart = 2002
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1957}}
| birth_place = Alberta, Canada
| education = Dartmouth College (BA)
University of San Francisco (JD)
}}
Kevin V. Ryan (born 1957) is a former United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. He was one of the attorneys whose name was mentioned in connection to the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Education and background
Ryan was born in Alberta Canada to Irish immigrant parents. Ryan was raised in San Francisco, graduating from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory. Ryan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Dartmouth College in 1980, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1984.{{cite book|last=Wolf|first=Kathy Morris|title=California Courts and Judges|year=1996|publisher=James Publishing|page=1541|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hD6DUucpFhcC&pg=PA1541 |isbn=9780938065982}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.kvrlaw.com/docs/KVRCV.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2018-06-24 |archive-date=2016-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208233501/http://kvrlaw.com/docs/KVRCV.pdf |url-status=dead }}
Ryan began his legal career in California as a prosecutor with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. While working with the District Attorney's Office, he handled a variety of cases including homicides and violent gang prosecutions.
In 1996, while serving as a member of the Violent Gang Suppression Unit, Ryan was appointed by Governor Pete Wilson to serve as a Judge on the San Francisco Municipal Court.
U.S. Attorney career and dismissal
{{See also|2006 dismissal of U.S. attorneys}}President George W. Bush nominated Ryan as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California. His nomination to was at the recommendation of Joseph P. Russoniello, a previous holder of the office.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} Ryan was confirmed by the United States Senate in July 2002.
Ryan was part of a controversy relating to the dismissal of nine U.S. Attorneys by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and announced his resignation in January 2007. The Los Angeles Times reported that Ryan was a "loyal Bush supporter" and that the Justice Department fired him primarily out of concern that his poor performance could cause a public relations problem. According to the report, Ryan's problems in office were "well documented in legal newspapers" but "Justice officials wanted to keep Ryan on, even as they plotted the firings of other U.S. attorneys."{{cite news|accessdate=2007-03-23|author=Dolan, Maura |url=http://www.latimes.com/la-me-ryan22mar22,0,7476553,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines|title=Bush loyalist among fired U.S. attorneys|work=Los Angeles Times|date=March 22, 2007}}{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Publicly released emails between Justice Department officials suggest that they reluctantly added him to the list of attorneys to be fired due to a Federal judge's threat to obtain and potentially release copies of his "blistering" negative evaluations.
City of San Francisco
In 2008, Ryan was hired by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to be his criminal justice advisor to address San Francisco's rising homicide rates.[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/17/MNH5UGGA7.DTL S.F. mayor hires top staff at high pay, despite big city deficit][http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/17/BA2GUGI01.DTL Proliferation of guns blamed for epidemic of violence in S.F.] He resigned in December 2009.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/about/index.html U.S. Attorney of Northern California]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20051127093540/http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/html/us_attorney_biography.html Biography]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20071014225731/http://www.aclufl.org/news_events/alert_archive/?action=viewRelease&emailAlertID=2556 ACLU article on former US Attorney Kevin Ryan]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Kevin V.}}
Category:Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy
Category:Dartmouth College alumni
Category:University of San Francisco alumni
Category:Lawyers from San Francisco
Category:Canadian people of Irish descent
Category:United States attorneys for the Northern District of California
Category:American people of Irish descent