During the course of much of the last 13 years, Bridgeport’s Shawn Angus Morgan was one of many individuals that has been involved in the battle on crime – and in particular drugs – in West Virginia. Although she was rarely in the public spotlight, her responsibility as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia was substantial.

 

“It was a significant responsibility and I did feel the weight of that. When you stand up at a hearing and you have to announce to the court that you’re there on behalf of the United States it reinforces the seriousness of the case you have in front of you,” said Morgan. “You dealt with that and you would deal with seeing people’e emotions running high in the courtroom from seeing a victim crying to family members of the defendant crying because they could see the consequences from the choice a loved one had made.”

 

While Morgan will still be in a court room, earlier this month she stepped down from her position as an Assistant United States Attorney. On Sept. 8, she’ll begin her new position with Steptoe & Johnson. It’s all part of a journey that began in the 1990s.

 

Morgan, who graduated from West Virginia University in 1991 with a liberal arts degree and then from WVU Law School in 1994, began in private practice. She worked for Robinson & McElwee while in school and after until the fall of 1997. In August of 1997 she became a law clerk for Judge Irene Keeley and served there until January of 2002.

 

It was at that time that Morgan began her for at the U.S. Attorney’s office. For more than a dozen years, she’s been involved with hundreds of cases in the court room. And as one might expect based on media coverage, a lot of her time was spent on one  particular area.

 

“The case load associated with drug trafficking was always heavy and it was pretty steady. I think the type of drug case we would see that the agents and officers encountered changed over time,” she said. “When I started cases there were a lot that dealt with crack cocaine and that shifted over time where it dropped and you began handling more cases with heroin and prescription pills.”

 

While Morgan said that “at least half” of her cases were drug related, it wasn’t the only area that she or the U.S. Attorney’s office focused on. The office dealt with firearms, crimes against children, violent crimes such as bank robberies, financial crimes threats against the sitting President of the United States and more. Many times, she said, the cases overlapped in their nature.

 

Despite the number and type of cases, Morgan said her work was made easier by a group that toiled in greater anonymity than anyone involved in the battle against crime in general and drugs in particular.

 

“To me I think the most significant aspect at working at the U.S. Attorney’s office was the ability to work closely with wonderful agents and task officers … Their work is what makes everything go smoothly,” said Morgan. “I think people in the public generally don’t ever see the work performed by agents and task for officers or under the work they do requires long hours and is dangerous. They don’t ever ask for accolades and recognition, but they sure deserve it.

 

“I can’t tell you how many evenings, weekends, holidays they work obtaining warrants after hours, serving warrants after hours and trying to coordinate serving warrants in a manner that keeps the public safe,” she continued. “Often times and in most cases, they’re people that can’t be identified publicly because of the nature of their work, but they are the ones who make what all of us do much easier.”

 

Morgan also talked highly of those she worked with in her office setting. She talked glowingly about the other agencies she worked closely with, which may lead one to wonder why she’s stepping down. And unlike many that leave the work she’s doing, it didn’t have anything to do with being burnt out on dealing with drug-related cases.

 

“For me it was as simple as it being time for a change. There was never anything about working with the U.S. Attorney office  that was monotonous. It was new and exciting every day for me, even if the case was similar to one I saw before. I loved the work there,” she said. “I just received a new opportunity and couldn’t pass it up.”

 

As mentioned, she’ll begin work on that new opportunity next month. Morgan will be working in the litigation department at Steptoe.

 

“I’m not sure where that will point me, but I’ll use my trial experience I’ve been blessed with at the U.S. Attorney’s office to help the firm’s clients that need representation,” said Morgan, a Mason County native who moved to Harrison County in 1994 and Bridgeport in 1996.

 

So the new portion of her journey is about to begin, but she won’t go it alone. Her husband Tim will be with her as well as her children – one of who is in high school and the other in middle school. As she moves on, she can’t help but look back and, again, make mention of the agents and officers who she worked with on a daily basis.

 

“I enjoyed what I did so much mainly because of the work of the officers and agents was so good. It made the job of the prosecutor a relatively easy one … Every once in a while you would see the defendant in a drug case tell the court that the Task Force officers saved their life,” she continued. “They told the court that they would be dead if they stayed on their current path and that path had not been interrupted by the officers. The one thing I wish is that all young people good see some of the things that took place and the repercussions of bad decisions and the difference a good decision can make.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo is of Shawn Morgan, while she is shown with her husband Tim in the bottom picture.