For two decades, Carl Faller has been
one of the most recognizable federal prosecutors in Fresno. He was originally hired as part of an organized crime task force that prosecuted drug dealers in
the 1980s during the heyday of the Colombian cartels.
In the 1990s, he helped prosecute serial
arsonist John Orr and appeared in a subsequent book on the case by crime writer Joseph Wambaugh. During that time, he also
headed the U.S. Attorney's Fresno office.
Most recently, he was the office's prosecutor for
the nation's top priority: terrorism. His last day was Wednesday.
Now, Faller has decided
to try something completely new. After 26 years as a prosecutor, the 54-year-old Visalia resident will finish his legal career
as a private defense attorney.
"There are times in life when change is good," Faller
said. "This is something that I've been planning for a while. The time is here. The opportunity is here."
Faller plans to ease into his new role, but he's already meeting with prospective clients. Eventually, he plans
to hang his shingle in Fresno.
"He's looking at a bright future," predicted Fresno
attorney Anthony Capozzi, who made a similar move in 1979.
Still, Capozzi said, initially
it will be a challenge.
As a prosecutor, Capozzi said, you work for the government, which
means you have the assistance of agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration and
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"It's nice having that, and you're wearing
the white hat," Capozzi said. "You're the good guy chasing the bad guy. The next day, it's David vs. Goliath. It's
you and your client against the government and all those agencies."
Faller has an undergraduate
degree in political science from Pepperdine University and a law degree from Loyola University. His first job was doing civil
law in the Los Angeles area.
He hated it.
"It was not
my niche, to say the least," Faller said. "But that was what was available, so that's what I did."
In 1981, his wife earned her law degree, which freed Faller to cast a wider net as he looked for a new job. He
landed a job as a prosecutor at the Tulare County District Attorney's Office.
He tried two
jury trials his first week, both of them for driving under the influence of alcohol. He went on to do everything, including
trying murder cases.
"The first day in a courtroom, I knew where I belonged," he
said.
In 1986, Faller took a job as a federal prosecutor on the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement
Task Force. Four years later, he was named chief of the U.S. Attorney's Fresno office, a position he held until 2002.
Faller's most memorable case from the drug task force years originated in his hometown of Porterville, where
authorities found 480 pounds of cocaine with a street value of $87.5 million in a ministorage warehouse.
Faller recalled a 1990s case involving members of a Modesto-based tax protest group who concocted a plan to avoid
paying income taxes. That led to the beating of the Stanislaus County clerk-recorder.
Orr,
the serial arsonist and a former Glendale fire captain, was convicted in Fresno for starting three San Joaquin Valley fires,
and was eventually given a life term for setting Southern California fires that killed four people.
Wambaugh
chronicled Orr in his book, "Fire Lover."
Faller's boss, McGregor W. Scott, who
is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, said it will be hard to replace Faller.
He
called Faller "one of the most experienced, capable prosecutors we have in the Fresno office." A measure of Scott's
trust is the assignments he's given Faller — those involving terrorism.
Two cases that
have made news recently involve Bakersfield resident Amen Ahmed Ali, who government officials say tried to ship stolen U.S.
military equipment and defense secrets to Yemen, and Porterville resident Talal "Ted" Ali Chammout, who is accused
of trying to purchase military weaponry to send to Middle Eastern terrorists.
