Meg Heap, the first woman ever to serve as Chatham County’s district attorney, was sworn in Monday as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, becoming the region’s chief federal law enforcement official.
U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall administered the oath office to Heap, who succeeds the Southern District’s acting U.S. attorney, Tara Lyons. She takes over immediately.
“I am incredibly honored to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia,” a news release issued by the Southern District’s office quoted her as saying. “I look forward to working with our partners in law enforcement to make this a safer place to live and raise our children.”
Heap was appointed to the post by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to the news release. Under federal law, as interim U.S. attorney she can only serve up to 120 days, or until a permanent replacement is appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
There were no indications Monday whether the White House and Justice Department intended to renew her interim appointment as it nears expiration, or make a formal nomination and seek Senate confirmation.
Heap’s new post is an influential one.
The U.S. attorney’s powers include the ability to start a criminal prosecution by filing a complaint or by requesting a grand jury indictment. The district is one of three federal judicial districts in Georgia, out of 94 nationwide, and covers 43 of Georgia’s 159 counties and includes the cities of Savannah, Augusta, and Brunswick.
Heap, who was raised in Savannah and attended St. Vincent’s Academy and Georgia Southern University, is a familiar figure in Chatham. A Republican, in 2012 she won her first term as Chatham County district attorney, formally known as the Eastern Judicial Circuit, in what The Savannah Morning News at the time described as a “long-shot challenge.”
She ran unopposed in the party primary and defeated the Democratic incumbent, Larry Chisholm, the county’s first Black district attorney, in the general election by 12.4% of the vote, a landslide.
In 2016, Heap ran unopposed in both the Republican primary and the general election. Four years later, however, she was upset in her bid for a third, four-year term by Shalena Cook Jones, who worked in the district attorney’s office as a “special victims prosecutor.”
Despite Heap’s large fundraising advantage, Jones defeated her by 5.7% of the vote — or 7,447 votes — in a nasty campaign during which the two sides traded accusations of racism and antisemitism, radicalism and socialism. With her victory, Jones became the first Black woman to hold the district attorney’s post.
Within days of being succeeded by Jones, Heap was appointed to Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles by Gov. Brian Kemp. She resigned from that job Friday.
Lyons became the first Black woman to serve in the role as the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Southern District of Georgia when she took over as acting U.S. attorney in January, with the customary resignation of Jill Steinberg following the inauguration of a new U.S. president.
Last year, Lyons, along with a paralegal, Tracy Long, victim witness coordinators Kellie Wiggins and Iverna Campbell, along with nine staff members from the FBI and the Justice Department’s civil division, were honored for their work in the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man who was chased and killed by three White men in Glynn County in February 2020.
They, along with nine staff members from the FBI and the Justice Department’s civil division, received the 70th Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the agency’s second-highest award. Following their convictions on charges of felony murder, Arbery’s assailants were convicted on federal charges of committing a hate crime.
“Each of today’s recipients has served with distinction, and in so doing, they have enabled the Justice Department to advance its work on behalf of the American people,” said then-Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Their exceptional leadership, heroism, and dedication have benefited people and communities across the country.”