CONTACT: 919/856-4530

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tuesday - November 4, 2003

GREENVILLE - United States Attorney Frank D. Whitney announced today that he has appointed YVONNE V. WATFORD-McKINNEY to serve as Chief of the Greenville/New Bern Branch of the United States Attorney's Office.

Ms. Watford-McKinney has served as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) for the Eastern District of North Carolina since January, 1995. Her particular areas of prosecution expertise include federal domestic violence, health care fraud, and economic crimes. During her career with the U. S. Attorney's Office, she has trained law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and service providers at various locations throughout the Eastern District in the area of federal domestic violence laws. Also, she has trained Special Investigative Service Officers for the U. S. Bureau of Prisons in the areas of search and seizure, evidence, and witness interviews.

Ms. Watford-McKinney served as an AUSA in the Eastern District of Michigan from 1983 until 1994, and was in private practice from 1981 until 1983. She is a native of Brooklyn, New York; a 1970 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts; and a 1980 graduate of Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, Michigan.

The Greenville office is located in the historic United States Courthouse Annex at 215 South Evans Street. It is the first fully staffed branch office for the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.