Jay Town
John Edward Town (born August 26, 1973) was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2017 to 2020.
Town earned a bachelor's in government and international relations at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana in 1995 and a juris doctorate from Seton Hall University School of Law in South Orange, New Jersey in 1998. He served as a Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Marine Corps on active duty and, later, in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was discharged from military service in 2008 with the rank of Major.
In private practice with McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter in Morristown, New Jersey from 2002 to 2005, Town represented businesses involved in litigation with federal agencies. He moved to Huntsville in 2005 to become a senior prosecutor for the Madison County District Attorney's Office. While there he led the formation of the Madison County Veterans Court. He also served as an adjunct professor for the University of Alabama-Huntsville Department of Political Science.
Town was nominated by President Donald Trump on June 12, 2017 to succeed Joyce Vance after her retirement. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on August 3 and sworn in by Judge Karon Bowdre on August 11. While in office, Town led negotiations on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had found that Alabama's Department of Corrections was inadequately protecting inmates from sexual and physical violence. He also chaired a working group for the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice. In 2018 he was invited to join the governing board of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' National Crime Gun Intelligence Center Initiative. Town resigned from the Northern District of Alabama in July 2020 in order to accept employment with a Huntsville-based defense contractor and cybersecurity provider.
Town has also served as a member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, a director of America's Warrior Partnership, chair and director of Boys & Girls Clubs of North Alabama, and a founding board member of the Bennie Adkins Foundation. He was presented with a Medal of Honor from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution for his charitable work. Town also served on the executive committee of the Alabama Republican Party.
| Preceded by: Joyce Vance |
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama 2017-2020 |
Succeeded by: Prim Escalona (interim) |
References
- Gray, Jeremy (January 12, 2017) "Trump nominates 3 to serve as Alabama's US Attorneys." The Birmingham News
- Burkhalter, Eddie (July 10, 2020) "U.S. Attorney Jay Town announces resignation." Alabama Political Reporter