On August 25, 2020, the Department of Justice issued a press release announcing the “historic” appointments of two Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys (“SAUSAs”) to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Georgia. The appointments include Darron Hubbard, a former military attorney who is now the full-time, dedicated prosecutor for cases arising out of Fort Stewart, and Jessica Rock, a state prosecutor who served on Georgia’s first “animal cruelty task force” and became Georgia’s “first dedicated animal cruelty prosecutor” in 2004. The DOJ press release states that Hubbard is the first full-time prosecutor appointed to Fort Stewart and Rock is only the second dedicated animal cruelty prosecutor that has joined a U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The appointments reflect an increased focus on criminal cases coming out of Fort Stewart and an aggressive new approach to increasing animal cruelty prosecutions at the federal level. Rock is already involved in the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s prosecution of “two major cockfighting cases” arising out of South Georgia.
Read the DOJ’s press release.