Dettelbach was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1965. He attended high school at Hawken School. He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1988. He then studied at Harvard Law School 1988–1991. While at Harvard, graduated magna cum laude, served as notes editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and volunteered representing indigent people in the Boston area for the Harvard Defenders.
Career
Dettelbach began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Stanley Sporkin of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Dettelbach joined the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Criminal section in 1992 as a trial lawyer and also served as the acting deputy chief there under Richard W. Roberts. Dettelbach handled several high-profile cases in the Civil Rights Division, including an involuntary servitude case involving 70 Thai garment workers in California, which came to be known as the El Monte slavery case. He became an Assistant United States Attorney in Maryland from 1997 to 2001 and was named deputy chief of the Southern Division of that office, which covers the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He was then detailed as counsel to Chairman Patrick Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2001 to 2003. There, he worked on oversight and policy, including the enforcement provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. From 2003 to 2006, Dettelbach was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Cleveland, working on the Organized Crime and Corruption Task Force. In that position, he prosecuted significant corruption cases, including United States v. Nate Gray, a series of cases involving a pay-to-play municipal corruption scheme. He also prosecuted US v. Budd, a case involving a series of beatings by guards and senior managers at a jail in Youngstown, Ohio, resulting in eight convictions on civil rights and obstruction of justice charges. From 2006 until his appointment in 2009 to his current position, he was a partner at BakerHostetler, a legal and lobbying firm, where he worked on litigation and regulatory matters, as well as conducting internal investigations for clients. He was also appointed by Governor Ted Strickland to serve on the Ohio Ethics Commission.
United States Attorney
On July 10, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Dettelbach to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Dettelbach was a classmate of Obama's at Harvard and worked with him as a summer associate at a Chicago law firm. Dettelbach was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 15, 2009. He had been recommended by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown after the senator appointed a search committee to make a recommendation to him. Attorney GeneralEric Holder appointed Dettelbach to the Attorney General's Advisory Committee and he chairs the group's Civil Rights subcommittee. Dettelbach has made civil rights enforcement, both criminal and civil, a priority in his time as United States Attorney. His office prosecuted the largest case, in terms number of defendants, under the Shepard-Byrd Hates Crimes Prevention Act. In that case, Samuel Mullet was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and 15 other defendants were sentenced to prison for their roles in a series of religiously motivated attacks on practitioners of the Amish faith. His office also secured a guilty plea to hate-crimes charges from an Indiana man who drove to northwest Ohio and set fire to the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo. The plea agreement included a binding recommendation for a 20-year prison sentence. That came more than a year after a white supremacist was sentenced to prison for setting fire to the only predominantly African American church in Conneaut, Ohio, an event Dettelbach used as the basis for the formation of United Against Hate, an interfaith group committed to religious tolerance. The office has also pursued civil remedies to civil rights issues, including successfully suing for the use of a bilingual ballot in Cuyahoga County under the Voting Rights Act and entering a consent decree with the City of Cleveland to reform the Division of Police. These reforms call for more training, oversight and civilian input with the police department. On January 20, 2016, Dettelbach announced that he would resign on February 5 and return to BakerHostetler to practice law.
Political
Dettelbach was a volunteer on U.S. Representative Ted Strickland's 2006 campaign for Ohio governor, offering policy advice, and participating in fundraising and grassroots activities. He volunteered for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, providing legal assistance and advice. He also served as an advisor on Obama's transition team. Dettelbach was a candidate for Ohio Attorney General in the 2018 elections. On January 16, 2017, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Dettelbach had started raising money for his likely campaign. He announced his run for the office on May 30, 2017. Dettelbach was defeated by Republican nominee Dave Yost in the November 2018 general election.
Personal
Dettelbach and his wife Karil have been married since September 23, 2000. They have two children. Dettelbach and his family are Jewish.
