Gianna Maio succeeds Beth Ford in community defender's office | Georgiana Vines

Changes have taken place in the Federal Community Defender leadership of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in a very different way than how federal prosecutors are selected.

Elizabeth “Beth” Ford, a career attorney who’s run the community defender’s office since 1999 and been active in Knoxville organizations, has retired and the office’s nonprofit board of directors has selected Gianna Maio, in charge of the Chattanooga office, as her successor. Maio plans to be in Knoxville weekly, she said. She also will work in the Greeneville office of the district.

On the other side of the federal court system, the chief prosecutor, or U.S. Attorney, is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The current U.S. Attorney, Francis “Trey” Hamilton III, is an interim appointment made by the district’s judges.

President Joe Biden nominated Casey Arrowood, a career attorney, for the U.S. Attorney position, but he was not approved during the last session of the U.S. Senate, so the nomination expired. Arrowood faced opposition from Asian communities and advocates since he was the prosecutor who helped mount an espionage case against a University of Tennessee professor as part of former President Donald Trump’s “China Initiative.” The case was dropped by a federal judge in Knoxville.

Both offices are operated with federal funds.

Ford, 67, said in an interview Wednesday, her first day of retirement, that the Eastern District’s “model” for selecting public or community defenders was decided when the late Thomas G. Hull was chief judge. He served in 2002-08. Federal court guidelines allow a district to decide whether to have judges or a nonprofit board made up primarily of defense attorneys – but also including professionals from social work and mental health fields – select the defender.

The method chosen for the defender for the Eastern District means “more independence,” Ford said. She said she was recruited to work in the office in 1992 by Leah Prewitt, the first person holding the position. At the time, Ford worked with juveniles in what has become the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

“We had cases against each other,” Ford said, explaining how she and Pruitt got to know each other. “I was ready for a change.”

Ford said she couldn’t discuss specific cases for privacy reasons but that the office has represented high-profile cases, including violations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The office also represents people on death row during their last round of appeals. She is a native of Newport, where she said her parents, Mary and Nathan Ford, both 95, live. She received a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University and her J.D. degree from the University of Tennessee. She has been on the YWCA board and Pellissippi State Business Advisory Committee and has been chair of the UT College of Law Alumni Council.

She and her husband, Mike Driskill, a retired architect, left for Belize on Thursday to begin her retirement traveling. “I wanted to go where it is warm,” she said.

Maio, 47, will head a staff of 50, most of whom are in the Knoxville office in the First Horizon building on Gay Street. She has been with the defender’s office since graduating from the UT College of Law in 2005.

The Ohio native’s undergraduate degree is from Kenyon College in Ohio, and she said she considered becoming a dentist before deciding on law school. She was introduced to the UT Legal Clinic as part of her study.

“That’s where I could see myself, representing juveniles and indigent defendants,” she said. That’s why she was interested in working in the Community Defender’s office, she added.She and her husband, Stephen Collins, an architect with MTO construction, have two children and also have moved their parents to Chattanooga.

“We’re definitely settled in Chattanooga,” she said.

Knoxville lawyer David Eldridge, who is on the Federal Defenders of East Tennessee advisory board, said Ford has led the office with “a wonderful combination of hard work, excellent organizational skills, compassion of its clients, and a healthy dose of good humor.” He said the office has become nationally recognized.

Eldridge said Maio was selected after a national search. “I know firsthand about her talents as a trial lawyer and have watched the relationships she has built with her clients and the respect she has earned from our Federal judges as well as those in the United States Attorney’s Office,” he said in a statement requested by this columnist.

∎ KNOXVILLE ELECTIONS UPDATE: Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon reported raising slightly more than $100,000 in her latest financial disclosure filed as part of her reelection campaign with the Knox County Election Commission. With what she had on hand from her last report and expenditures, her balance on Jan. 15 was $122,886.

Her contributors include a number of high-profile real estate investors, developers and business people as well as neighborhood leaders. They include real estate developer Tim Hill, who himself is a candidate for at-large seat C held by incumbent Amelia Parker. Tim and Deanna Hill contributed a total of $6,400, which is for the primary and general elections this year.

Other contributors of $1,600, the maximum per election for a city campaign, include Mark Heinz, Phil Lawson, Mike Keeney, Carey Parker, Rick Dover, Jacob Bull, Gene Morris, Chadwick Campbell and Sharon Pryse.

Much of Kincannon’s expenses has gone to Savannah Gillette, for campaign work, at $2,000 every two weeks.

Former Knoxville police officer and Fraternal Order of Police president Keith Lyon has filed paperwork to run for mayor and reported on Jan. 31 he had raised $150 and spent nearly $34 for a balance of $116.

However, he said Friday any potential mayoral race is on hold and he is concentrating on a campaign to become the next chairman of the Knox County Republican Party. He would succeed lawyer Daniel Herrera, who is not seeking reelection. The local GOP will reorganize at a convention beginning at 10 a.m. Feb. 17 at Crown College in Powell.

The Knoxville city primary is scheduled for Aug. 29 with the general election on Nov. 7. The city elections are nonpartisan, although legislation has been introduced in the state legislature to require they, as well as all judicial elections, be partisan.

Meanwhile, the Knox County Election Commission staff plans to conduct a seminar for individuals considering campaigning for city offices in 2023, people interested in being poll workers and interested voters 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. March 4 at the Downtown West Early Voting/Training facility, 6145 Downtown West Blvd.

Chris Davis, elections administrator, said Election 101 also will took toward 2024. Over the course of the next two years, five elections will be held, he said. He said candidates, workers and voters need more information, including on election security.

He said it will be a hands-on seminar, including instructions on how to use a voting machine.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Georgiana Vines: Maio succeeds Ford in community defender's office