Attorney leaves post for judgeship

Gregory A. White served five years as U.S. attorney for the Northern District.

CLEVELAND — A familiar face in law enforcement in the Mahoning Valley is getting a new job.

U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White of the Northern District of Ohio resigned that position Friday and will be sworn in Monday as the district’s new U.S. magistrate judge.

The Northern District of Ohio encompasses the state’s 40 northernmost counties and includes the cities of Youngstown and Warren.

White has appeared in Youngstown on several occasions, including an announcement in 2003 to institute the Gun Reduction Interdiction Program to keep guns from felons and cut down on the number of shootings and homicides in the city.

In 2003, the city had 19 homicides, the lowest number in 20 years.

White is a graduate of Kent State University and the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. Before his appointment as U.S. attorney in February 2003, he served 22 years as Lorain County prosecutor.

A Marine Corps veteran, White was instrumental in helping obtain more than $10 million in grant money for various Northern District projects.

He supervised several public corruption prosecutions, including that of Thomas Noe of Toledo, the rare-coin dealer convicted of illegally funneling money into President Bush’s re-election campaign and stealing millions from a rare-coin fund he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

William J. Edwards, first assistant U.S. attorney, will become acting U.S. attorney. Edwards has been with the U.S. attorney’s office since 1973 and had served as acting U.S. attorney in 1988.