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D.C.'s top lawyer resigns post
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Linda Singer, the District of Columbia’s top lawyer, resigned her post Monday.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Linda Singer, the District of Columbia’s top lawyer, resigned her post Monday after months of acrimony and losing turf battles with Mayor Adrian Fenty’s personal counsel.
Fenty announced Singer’s resignation Monday and appointed his counsel, Peter Nickles, as her interim replacement.
Singer, 41, was the centerpiece of the new mayor’s reform team when he plucked her from the small nonprofit Appleseed Foundation to head the $87 million agency, which is responsible for defending the city from litigation, enforcing D.C.’s child support laws, arguing for wards of the courts and protecting consumers. She had never appeared in a D.C. court before taking the job.
Singer stumbled out of the gate when she demanded firing of key staffers before taking office and then denied having done so.
And, despite the reforming zeal which she claimed to bring to the job, Singer increasingly was a secondary player in Fenty’s administration.
Nickles, a career litigator and trusted family friend of the mayor, took over numerous day-to-day operations in the city’s legal affairs.
Nickles declined comment on Singer’s resignation.
Singer’s staff didn’t help her cause: Twice over the summer, the city was held in contempt over its youth-detention policies, her deputies continued to botch special education cases, and, in one notable instance, city lawyers were ripped for their “stunning ignorance” by a federal judge.
Fenty downplayed the controversies surrounding Singer’s tenure and defection Monday but denied that he was surprised by it.
“We very, very much appreciate the hard work of Attorney General Singer and wish her the best,” the mayor told a news conference.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, a critic of the city’s lawyering, said Singer was put in an impossible position.
“They don’t have enough lawyers to handle the volume of litigation,” Lamberth told The Examiner. “The office has had a chronic understaffing problem that she couldn’t solve, either. Only the mayor and the [Disrict] Council can give them the resources they need.”
But Singer’s resignation leaves Fenty in a bind for her successor. Nickles, 69, lives in rural Virginia, and the attorney general is required to be a District resident.
And many council members associate Nickles with what they consider Fenty’s high-handed manner.
“That Peter Nickles will be interim attorney general is a mistake,” said Phil Mendelson, D-at large, chair of the council’s Judiciary Committee.
Nickles told The Examiner in an exclusive interview last week that he didn’t expect to serve out Fenty’s four-year term.
“I’m a little old,” Nickles said. “I don’t know if I’ll be around in four years.”
Examiner Staff Writer Scott McCabe contributed to this report.
Comments from Examiner Readers
1:48 PM MST on Wed., May. 21, 2008 re: "AG: Keep some teens out of adult jail"
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Examiner Reader said:
“Everything we know about juvenile behavior shows that juveniles aren’t treated best by the adult prison population.”
3 agree | 1 disagree
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Amanda Rabb said:
I am 17 year old teen, and i have got to say living in this soceity is insane, you see the teens that i deal with wants to have future. that is why i chose vey carely who i hang out with. My parents are not blind to what is going on, they talk to me and my sibling, there are 6 of us and my parents do not play. But the point is yes i think that if a teen do a grown up crime then they should do grown up time. Because they know right from wrong.
120 agree | 108 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Linda Singer should have never had the job as Attorney General, bottom line is that she is not qualified for it. That being said, this liberal bleeding heart city is an embrassment. These thugs that get charged and convicted as adults should be put in prision and have the key thrown away. Bottom line is this city is full of young thug pieces of crap who will end up in jail sooner or later anyways. But who cares, this world is better of without them.
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Examiner Reader said:
In the news in recent months, D.C. teens have shot at people (including cops), tried to run over a cop with a stolen car, and killed each other. They are not stealing candy bars, for goodness sake. Why not make it known that if they want to commit adult crimes, they will face real penalties -- not just hand-holding and therapy.
123 agree | 121 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
She has resigned and no longer has any influence in District affairs.
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Examiner Reader said:
The attorney general should be fired-she sides with the dishonest gov. employees against innocent people-she is incompetent-also get rid of her lacky Andy Saidon.
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Examiner Reader said:
I posted this comment this morning at 8:10 a.m. Amazingly, an alien , I think, deleted it from the hairnet. Dare to question them, they will not censor you. Comments from Examiner Readers 8:10 AM MST on Wed., Nov. 7, 2007 re: "Officials question attorney general?s absence" Examiner Reader said: This article confirms Bill Myers and the Examiner are a first-rate team. First, Myers details the AG's absenteeism and lame defense of the District in the eye gouging case, then he explains that in two separate incidents, the AG's office wtnow he complains the AG's office is not protecting the District. Bill Myers is obviously mindful of the few victories either in court that have saved the District's taxpayers hundreds of dollars in potential liability each year. It is true that the AG's office was twice cited for contempt by a court and this is inexcusable. Bill Myer's and the Examiner should be darn proud of this insightful and dead-on journalism.
141 agree | 147 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I posted this comment this morning at 8:10 a.m. Amazingly, an alien , I think, deleted it from the hairnet. Dare to question them, they will not censor you. Comments from Examiner Readers 8:10 AM MST on Wed., Nov. 7, 2007 re: "Officials question attorney general?s absence" Examiner Reader said: This article confirms Bill Myers and the Examiner are a first-rate team. First, Myers details the AG's absenteeism and lame defense of the District in the eye gouging case, then he explains that in two separate incidents, the AG's office wtnow he complains the AG's office is not protecting the District. Bill Myers is obviously mindful of the few victories either in court that have saved the District's taxpayers hundreds of dollars in potential liability each year. It is true that the AG's office was twice cited for contempt by a court and this is inexcusable. Bill Myer's and the Examiner should be darn proud of this insightful and dead-on journalism.
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Examiner Reader said:
Is anyone surprised that she people are starting to uncover the INCOMPETENCE of the AG AND the MAYOR? One day folks will wake up...
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Examiner Reader said:
I posted this comment this morning at 8:10 a.m. Amazingly, Bill Myers and the Examiner removed it from the internet. Dare to question them, they will censor you. Comments from Examiner Readers 8:10 AM MST on Wed., Nov. 7, 2007 re: "Officials question attorney general?s absence" Examiner Reader said: This article confirms Bill Myers and the Examiner as the most biased rag in the city. First, Myers complains about the AG's aggresive defense of the District in the eye gouging case, now he complains the AG's office is not protecting the District. Bill Myers is obviously ignorant of the hundreds of victories either in court, summary judgment or favorable settlements that save the District's taxpayers millions of dollars in potential liability each year. Only an amateur would lob such broadsides based upon 2 cases without any research whatsoever and try to make a statement out of it. Bill Myer's and the Examiner should be renamed Access Hollywood.
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