Matthew P. Brookman selected as United States Magistrate Judge

PRESS RELEASE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA

Laura A. Briggs, Clerk

46 East Ohio Street

Room 105

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Matthew P. Brookman selected as United States Magistrate Judge

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (September 14, 2015):  The Honorable Richard L. Young, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, is pleased to announce the selection of Evansville attorney Matthew P. Brookman as United States Magistrate Judge. Mr. Brookman’s appointment will be made upon completion of a Federal Bureau of Investigation background check, a process that can take a few months. Once appointed, he will fill the vacancy created by the impending retirement of The Honorable William G. Hussmann, who has served the court since April 1988 and will retire on January 31, 2016.

The duties of Magistrate Judges in the Southern District of Indiana are demanding and wide-ranging, and Mr. Brookman will conduct preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; preside over trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases; conduct various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge; and preside over trial and disposition of civil cases upon consent of the litigants. Mr. Brookman will primarily serve in the Evansville Division of the Southern District and travel to the other divisional offices of the Court to hold proceedings and conduct settlement conferences.

Mr. Brookman is presently employed by the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, where he serves as the Chief of the Office’s Drug and Violent Crime Unit and Lead Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force Attorney. He is also a member of the United States Attorney’s Executive Committee, Capital Case Coordinator for the Southern District of Indiana, and has served as a Chair and a Member from 2011 until 2015 of the United States Attorney’s various Hiring Committees. In 2010, Mr. Brookman received the Director’s Award from United States Attorney General Eric Holder, in Washington, DC, for superior performance as an Assistant United States Attorney, for his work on the United States v. Jarvis Brown, et al. quadruple homicide prosecution.

Mr. Brookman was born in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990 from DePauw University, where he majored in economics and history. He also studied abroad at the University of Essex in Colchester, England. He obtained his law degree from the Washington University School of Law in May 1993, and was admitted to the bar in Missouri that same year. He has since been admitted to practice in numerous state and federal courts, including Indiana.

After spending the early part of his career in private practice and with the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney of Jefferson County, Missouri, Mr. Brookman joined the Office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri in 1999. Mr. Brookman then moved to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana in 2002, where he has remained. Additionally, Mr. Brookman is an adjunct professor at the University of Evansville and has also taught at the University of Southern Indiana, the United States Department of Justice National Advocacy Center, and the Southwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

Mr. Brookman and his wife Michele live in Newburgh, Indiana with their three children: Katie, 18, a freshman at Indiana University; Adam, 14, a freshman at Castle High School; and Andrew, 7, a first grader at John H. Castle Elementary School.

Magistrate Judges are appointed by the Judges of the United States District Courts for terms of eight years, and are eligible for reappointment to successive terms.