Chief of the Criminal Division

Richard P. Barrett

Richard P. Barrett joined the Office in 1990, and has served in a variety of supervisory positions, including Chief of the Firearms unit; Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for Violent Crime, Firearms and Narcotics; and Chief of the Corruption, Civil Rights and Labor Racketeering unit.  Prior to joining the Office, Mr. Barrett served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office for five years in the Rape Prosecution unit.  Mr. Barrett has prosecuted and tried numerous notable public corruption cases, and recently received the Department of Justice’s John Marshall Award for his work in United States v. Linda Weston, at al.  Weston and her four co-defendants were convicted of racketeering and historically significant violations of the Shepard/Byrd/Hate Crime Act for targeting mentally disabled victims over a period of ten years while stealing their disability and Social Security payments; beating them; confining them in locked closets, basements, and attics; depriving them of adequate food and medical care, and directly causing the deaths of two, who died while in captivity.  Mr. Barrett is also an Adjunct Professor at Temple University School of Law, where he teaches courses in Corruption Law and Policy, International Criminal Law, and Trial Advocacy.  He is the co-author of Lessons of Yugoslavia Rape Trials:  A Role for Conspiracy Law in International Tribunals, 88 Minnesota Law Review 30 (2003).  Mr. Barrett earned a B.A. from Temple University, and his J.D. from Temple University School of Law, where he was on the Law Review.