Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan honored with an Arthur S. Flemming Award for his work preventing and prosecuting child exploitation crimes

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Sullivan was honored today with an Arthur S. Flemming Award for his work in preventing and prosecuting crimes involving the exploitation of children.

The Flemming Awards were established in 1948 and are presented by the George Washington University Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration. Past recipients include Neil Armstrong, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, former Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker.  The last time a Flemming Award was presented to an employee of any U.S. Attorney’s Office was in 2011.

Sullivan was honored for his highly successful prosecution, as Senior Litigation Counsel, of child exploitation cases.  He has gained a national reputation for his aggressive prosecution of these offenders.  His greatest contribution may well be his role in the implementation and promotion of a new investigative protocol for child pornography cases that has been incredibly successful in Northern Ohio and has been replicated across the country.

“This award is a testament to the many years Mike has spent pursuing predators and sticking up for our most vulnerable victims,” U.S. Attorney Justin E. Herdman said. “Mike is absolutely the best that the Department of Justice, the United States Attorney’s community, and the Northern District of Ohio has to offer. I’m very glad he’s on our side and the side of our nation’s child victims.”

Sullivan is often asked to train and speak to prosecutors around the nation about how to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases. He also frequently talks to students and parents at school throughout the area about safe use of computers and social media.

Sullivan graduated from the University of Notre Dame and the Fordham University School of Law. He worked in the Suffolk County (New York) District Attorney’s Office and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office before joining the United States Attorney’s Office in Cleveland in 2003.