President Joseph R. Biden nominated Monday a southern Colorado law enforcement officer as the Centennial State’s next U.S. marshal. He also announced nominees to be U.S. attorneys for the Los Angeles region and for Oregon.
Kirk R. Taylor, who was first elected sheriff of Pueblo County in 2006, is slated to be Colorado’s U.S. marshal. A law enforcement officer since 1987, Taylor has worked at the Alamosa Police Department and as an investigator for the 10th Judicial District.
He is a U.S. Navy veteran. Taylor holds a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and a law degree from the University of Colorado.
If confirmed, Taylor would replace former Douglas County sheriff David A. Weaver. Weaver took over the post in March 2018.
The U.S. Marshals Service was founded in 1789. The oldest federal law enforcement agency, it protects federal judges and witnesses, transports federal prisoners, manages and sells assets seized under federal law, and works with local agencies to find and arrest fugitives.
Biden named E. Martin Estrada, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson, as the U.S. government’s chief lawyer in the Central District of California.
Estrada was a federal prosecutor between 2007-2014 and was a law clerk to two federal judges before entering practice in 2004.
The Central District of California is the most populated federal judicial district in the nation. It includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.
For the U.S. attorney post in Oregon Biden tapped Natalie K. Wright, a veteran assistant U.S. attorney.
Wright has worked for the federal government since graduating from law school in. 2003. She was an attorney for the Bureau of Prisons for several years before becoming a prosecutor in 2008.
As an assistant U.S. attorney Wright has handled some civil cases. She currently serves as deputy chief of the organized and violent crime section of the U.S. attorney’s office in Portland.