Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995 TAG: 9503240069
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL MILLER THE WASHINGTON POSt
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
He got the booklet shortly after he got his badge. It was a gift from his father, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who told him: ``Read this cover to cover. Don't violate it, and you'll do fine.''
Marshall, 36, has heeded the advice, and now he's one of the top law-enforcement officials in Virginia. He's ending his first year as the U.S. marshal for the state's Eastern District, a job in which he has been responsible for the security of some notorious prisoners - such as CIA turncoat Aldrich H. Ames and John C. Salvi III, the man accused of killing two people and wounding five others in a wave of anti-abortion violence on the East Coast.
Marshall is in charge of a staff of 100 that keeps federal courthouses secure in Alexandria, Richmond and Norfolk. He and his deputies also have in custody 300 prisoners, track scores of fugitives, protect government witnesses and seize and sell houses and other property confiscated in criminal cases.
And yes, people do call him Marshal Marshall.
``I don't mind it,'' he said during an interview at his office in Alexandria. ``The job is great. I know I'm not going to change my name, and I don't think the Marshals Service is going to make a switch, either.''
Marshall was appointed by President Clinton to the federal job in June, shortly after he was nominated by Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va. Marshall had spent 14 years with the Virginia State Police, working as a trooper, narcotics agent, training-academy instructor and, finally, as a sergeant supervising a squad of nine troopers in Fairfax, Va.
``The state police really miss him,'' said Sgt. Dean Jones, 43. ``He's the type of person who will do well at anything he tries. He's able to take any job and learn it quickly and do it well.''
Marshall's father gave him the copy of the Constitution in December 1980, the day the younger Marshall graduated from the police academy. Marshall said his father, who championed defendants' rights and railed against police abuses during 24 years on the Supreme Court, neither encouraged nor discouraged his son's career choice, telling him only to choose a job he would enjoy and do his best at it.
``His hat was off to law enforcement,'' Marshall said. ``He said for a police officer to do the job correctly is a challenge, and those who did were a very valuable part of society.''
Still, Marshall said his father's perspective benefitted from having a son who was a police officer, if only because of constant parental concerns about the younger Marshall's safety. ``He really got to see law enforcement from a different side. I think it was good for both of us.''
Marshall said his background prepared him well for his work, noting that his father taught him from an early age to honor the law.
When Marshall became a motorcycle-squad member with the state police, he was afraid to tell his father, who believed motorcycles were dangerous. The son stalled and stalled.
Finally he realized he had better speak up.
One day he was on his motorcycle, patrolling a busy highway on the express lanes out of Washington, Marshall said. ``I saw a very familiar Lincoln Town Car and a very familiar silver-haired man in the back seat. I thought about pulling up next to him and waving, but then I decided I'd better not let him see me unless I told him about the motorcycle first. I got off at the next exit.''
Marshall asked his mother to break the news to his father. She did.
When Marshall was sworn into his assignment at the Alexandria courthouse in June, he took the oath using the same Bible that his father had used when he joined the Supreme Court in 1967.
Marshall's mother, Cecilia, and brother, Thurgood Jr., 38, a top aide to Vice President Al Gore, were among friends and relatives who attended the ceremony, along with Marshall's wife, Jean, and daughters, Melonie, 16, and Cecilia, 13.
In remarks that day, Marshall paid tribute to his family and said that his only regret was that his father couldn't be there.
Marshall's father died in January 1993; he was 84 and had retired in June 1991 from the Supreme Court because of failing health.
John Marshall still calls his mother, who lives in Falls Church, Va., nearly every day. ``She kept the family together over the years and still does,'' he said.
His mother no longer frets so much about his job. In fact, Marshall said, the person with the most challenging job in the family might well be his wife, who drives a school bus in Prince William County, Va.
by CNB