Meet the First Assistant U.S. Attorney

Michelle M. Baeppler

Michelle M. Baeppler is the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. In this position, Ms. Baeppler leads a staff of nearly 200 employees representing the United States in courts throughout Ohio’s northern 40 counties, including staffed offices in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo and Youngstown.

Ms. Baeppler first joined the United States Attorney's Office in 2007 as an Assistant United States Attorney. During her time at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ms. Baeppler has worked in multiple units in the Office, including the National Security Unit, OCDETF (Narcotics) Unit, and General Crimes Unit.  She has been involved in a number of notable prosecutions, including   U.S. v. Demetrius Pitts (an individual that planned to attack downtown Cleveland on the Fourth of July with explosive devices); U.S. v. Terrence McNeil (an individual that published the names, addresses and images of U.S. Military personnel, with a call to others to find and attack them);  and U.S. v. Damon Joseph (an individual that planned a mass shooting at a synagogue in the Toledo area). 

Ms. Baeppler has held both line assistant and supervisory positions throughout her career, including Deputy Chief of the OCDETF (Narcotics) Unit and Akron Branch Office Chief. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she worked as a Lake County Prosecutor.

She earned her B.A. from Miami University and her J.D. from Cleveland Marshall College of Law.