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U.S. attorney takes office
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 19, 2002
TAMPA -- Jacksonville lawyer Paul I. Perez was sworn in Monday as the new U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida.
Perez was appointed by President George Bush in January and confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this month.
Perez said he would make changes, but only after careful consideration.
"It's my plan to leave this office in better shape than when I found it," Perez said.
He said his administration would be guided by Attorney General John Ashcroft's initiatives to focus on terrorism, immigration, drugs and to get guns out of the hands of convicted felons.
Perez, 47, has worked as a federal criminal defense attorney with the law firm of Booth, Arnold & Perez in Jacksonville since 1994. From 1988 to 1992, he worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Jacksonville office.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Jacksonville University, a master's from the University of Florida and a law degree from George Washington University.
Perez replaced Mac Cauley, who took over on an interim basis when Donna Bucella resigned in May.
The nation's 93 U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, and often are replaced when a new party wins the White House.
The U.S. attorney in Florida's 35-county Middle District, which stretches from Jacksonville through Orlando and down to Fort Myers, oversees a 220-employee operation with a $17-million budget. The job pays about $126,000 annually and has been based in Tampa, although Perez's newly announced first assistant, James R. Klindt, said he and his boss will spilt their time among the three main offices in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa.
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