Page 14 - ACTL Journal Fall24

Fifteen pimps were charged. Thirteen accepted pleas. Two went to trial; both were convicted, and sentenced, respectively, to thirty and forty years.
Bill Harper was succeeded as U.S. Attorney in 1982 by Larry Thompson, who would go on to become Deputy U.S. Attorney General, as Harper be- came a U.S. Magistrate Judge. Later, when an open position as a Magistrate opened, Harper encouraged Rick to apply, and Judge Richard H. Deane, Jr. served as such from 1994-98.
Rick enjoyed being a judge – and he was good at it – but the lure of being the top dog at the U.S. Attorney’s office was a bone he could not help but fetch. Appointed by President Clinton as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, George Bush kept him on an additional year, and Rick served from 1998 through 2001.
Under Rick’s leadership, the U.S. Attorney’s Office handled many impactful matters. Rick ranks as one of his greatest prides the use of the RICO Statute to go after the pimps who were prostituting Atlanta children. Time Magazine introduced the story this way:
Pimps aren’t generally known by their given names, and the 14 alleged flesh peddlers arrested in Atlanta last January were no exception. Law-en- forcement officers hauled in “Playboy,” “Worm” and “Poochie,” among others. But while the suspects were busy being charged with 226 federal crimes in one of the biggest strikes ever against purveyors of underage prostitutes, they were most curious about a name most of them had never heard before. “Who,” they asked, “is RICO?”
Prostitution – even underage prostitution – is usually addressed by state law and state prosecutors. But at the time, Georgia law made pimping a mere misdemeanor, making prosecutions a bad cost/effectiveness proposition. So Rick filled the vacuum, bringing RICO and Federal law into the equation and doing something. Time reported “thanks to the creativity and determi- nation of Richard Deane, the U.S. Attorney for Georgia’s northern district, Atlanta’s pimps became the nation’s first to be charged under RICO statutes.”
Entering private practice for the first time in 2001, Rick has practiced since then with Jones Day, serving as Partner-In-Charge of their Atlanta Office and as Co-Chair of the Investigations and White Collar Defense Practice.
Rick recently bought a lake house, big enough to house his entire family. A big house, because it’s a big family. His step- father, Jacob Parker, passed away in 2022, but his Mom, Annie Ruth, still presides, along with Rick’s three sisters (a pediatric optometrist, an AUSA in Macon, and an IT Tech). Rick has seven grandchil- dren from his three children, Nikkia, an accountant with Delta, Richard III, re- cently retired from the U.S. Army as a SFC (Sergeant First Class), and Jonathan, a middle school teacher and coach who played college football.
So yes, shout it out! Rick Deane is the College’s first African-American President.
We are proud of that.
But Rick needs no adjectives to qualify his presidency. Rick Deane has had a life and career of real consequence. His old mentor Bill Harper was right that Rick isn’t someone who quits – he has demonstrated that he gets the job done, as a prosecutor, as a judge, as a private lawyer, as a father.
Rick Deane will be the College’s seven- ty-fifth President. He will do us proud.
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