FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of West Virginia officials recognized and honored Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod J. Douglas at a December awards ceremony for his superlative investigative work and community service.
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office Michael D. Nordwall also presented Douglas, 38, a Clay County native and Wheeling area resident, with a letter of commendation from FBI Director Christopher Wray at the Dec. 12 awards ceremony. In his letter, Wray lauded Douglas for his work on several high-profile FBI cases in West Virginia and commended him for his "innovative prosecution strategies, grit, tenacity, aggressiveness, and deep legal knowledge."
Douglas has worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the past 11 years. Previously, he served in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office under the Attorney General's Honors Program. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he prosecutes federal criminal matters occurring in the Eastern Panhandle.
Douglas' prosecutorial skills and knowledge were cited particularly for a pair of prominent cases.
The first involved Reta Mays, a former nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to killing seven veterans and trying to kill an eighth with insulin injections between July 2017 to June 2018. The veterans ranged in ages 81 to 86, their military service times ranging from World War II to Vietnam.
Douglas was asked to be part of the lead counsel for the prosecution in Mays' trial after it had begun.
"I remember it was my last day before I was going on a holiday leave. [Former U.S. Attorney] Bill Powell asked if I wanted to take over this case. I was a little hesitant, because the case had been around about for 18 months -- and a lot of attorneys. I realized it could be one of those once-in-a-lifetime cases, so I said yes. Within six months, I was able to get her to plead guilty to those murder counts. In March 2020, I used a little known thing at the time called Zoom to present some of the evidence to attorneys and started those plea negotiations through Zoom in March and April of 2020," Douglas said.
In May 2021, Mays was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 20 years on seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. While sentencing Mays, U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh called her the "worst kind" of monster. "You are the monster no one sees coming," the judge said.
Douglas was also part of the lead counsel for the espionage trial of Naval nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and Diana Toebbe. In November 2022 in Martinsburg, the Annapolis husband and wife were sentenced to 232 months and 262 months, respectively, for conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships.
The couple had been arrested in October 2021 in Jefferson County by FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents. In February 2022, Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty in a Martinsburg federal court to charges that he conspired to sell classified military information about nuclear submarines to a foreign government.
According to a BBC News report, Diana Toebbe received the longer prison sentence because the judge suggested she masterminded the operation. Douglas had requested a three-year prison term for Diana Toebbe, but Judge Gina Groh imposed her 21-year sentence after saying, "It's clear to this court that Ms. Toebbe was probably driving the bus," among other considerations from the bench.
From Clay County to the courtroom
Douglas' father, Kanawha County Family Court Judge Jim Douglas, grew up in the Ivydale area of Clay County, as did his son and two siblings. "I was a divorce lawyer for several years and had a practice in Sutton," Jim Douglas said. "I tried to get him to join me, but he refused to do it. He told me he wanted to be a prosecutor. After a relatively short period, he earned his stripes and paid his dues."
"I pretty much went from K through 12th grade in Clay County schools," Jarod Douglas said. Before graduating from Clay County High School in 2002, he was twice named a Class AA All-State football wide receiver. "Based on that, [West Virginia University football coach] Rich Rodriguez let me be a preferred walk-on in 2002."
At roughly the same time, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) had nominated him for a West Point military appointment. "I let my fandom for WVU take over and accepted the football invitation," Douglas said. "I was mainly a practice player, although I got to play on the Sugar Bowl championship team and got a Sugar Bowl ring."
Away from the football field, he double-majored in political science and German in his Morgantown classrooms. He was admitted into WVU's College of Law in 2006.
"During my senior year of high school, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer like my dad," Douglas recounted. "I had taken advanced math classes, but I decided I'd rather work with people than with numbers. Growing up in Clay County, I hadn't been around U.S. Attorney offices or thought about it much.
"In 2008, I started looking for jobs. My dad had introduced me to Chief Judge John Preston Bailey. I accepted a clerkship with him and started with him in August 2009."
While serving as a law clerk for Bailey for three years, Douglas said, "I got used to federal court. It's the NBA of courts. Ninety percent of your work is criminal cases, seeing the work of U.S. attorneys."
In 2012, Douglas began double duty, working for Groh in Martinsburg as well as handling cases in Wheeling, commuting to and from the northern and eastern panhandles weekly. "Most of our cases were in Martinsburg," he said, "and there were two veteran U.S. Attorneys I got to see a lot of there. Each probably had 25 years of experience. That piqued my interest even more to possibly become an Assistant U.S. Attorney."
At the end of 2012, Groh offered him the opportunity to become a law clerk for a fourth year. "At that same time, I learned that there was a potential opening to get into the Department of Justice's Attorney General's Honors Program.
"That's generally a program based at the Justice Department for entry-level attorneys," Douglas explained. "Every year, they have what they call hiring components in the field. There was a component in the Civil Division in 2013. I found out about it the Friday before the admission period ended that Sunday. I came into Judge Bailey's office on Saturday morning and wrote all of the essays, about why I wanted to be an attorney and things like that. I interviewed and was accepted."
He was offered the Assistant U.S. Attorney position in the spring of 2013. Douglas began working on criminal cases in Martinsburg. "My first day, I also had to take on a criminal docket in Martinsburg. I was cutting my teeth on drug cases, some simple white-collar crimes.
"Another retirement of an Assistant U.S. Attorney is how I first got into the area of public corruption. In the fall of 2014, I transitioned back into Wheeling."
One of his first public corruption cases involved Bob Andrew, a former West Virginia Division of Highways official, who committed suicide hours after being indicted on federal racketeering charges of creating a "culture of corruption" in the WVDOH.
"That immediately led to a second DOH case involving Bruce Kenney in, basically, a pay-for-play scheme that we prosecuted in Wheeling," Douglas said. On Dec. 14, 2016, ex-WVDOH employee Kenney pleaded guilty to wire and tax fraud, admitting he used his position to funnel work to a South Carolina business, receiving secret payments of nearly $200,000.
"So I got my feet wet in public corruption cases and then there were some civil rights cases coming in."
Douglas was named a National Security Attorney five years ago. "I started to learn how to work national security. I have to have top secret clearance, special trainings, things like that."
Sharing his legal expertise
Following the conviction of Mays, Douglas has written articles regarding the case for West Virginia Lawyer and American Bar Association Criminal Justice magazines. He was also interviewed about the case last year for the A&E network program "Interrogation Raw" and the documentary series "Forensic Files II," both of which aired last summer.
Douglas was also recognized in 2022 for his work in the Mays case during the Annual Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency Awards ceremony. "Our team also received the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Award. The most prestigious was one from the Justice Department, the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service, in July. It's the Justice Department's second highest award for employee performance. It was the first Northern District case to receive an Attorney General's Award."
He added the Toebbe espionage case is a possible candidate for the 2023 award.
"I've been able to do some significant speaking engagements from the Toebbe case. Our prosecution team presented the case at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, this past summer. Near the end of last year, members of our team got to go to Australia to present to their federal police and domestic agencies about the case.
"I appreciate the honors, and I know how rare it is to receive these honors," Douglas said, "but I don't do this job for those honors -- that's not what gives me the satisfaction of doing the job. What gives me satisfaction is working with the great and talented investigators, and, in the Reta Mays case, the very talented medical experts. My job is to bring it together to some kind of resolution. Especially with the Reta Mays case, because there were victims involved and bringing some semblance of closure to those surviving family members and that there was some justice done. In the Toebbe case, it was my job, obviously, to protect national security.
"It's approaching the challenges these cases present and working in a teamwork fashion, trying to reach a resolution that we can be proud of. The Reta Mays case was the most challenging, because we were dealing with death and the potential for the death penalty. There was a lot of scrutiny going on with senators and the Attorney General of the United States, with all of the surviving families, and with the medical experts presenting evidence you generally don't have to deal with. Just about every medical field was involved, from pharmaceutical to clinical to psychology," he said.
"You just approach cases with that teamwork fashion, relying on experts and investigators, just trying to be intuitive, creative, and reasonable to reach a resolution."
FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Pittsburgh Field Office Michael D. Nordwall also presented Douglas, 38, a Clay County native and Wheeling area resident, with a letter of commendation from FBI Director Christopher Wray at the Dec. 12 awards ceremony. In his letter, Wray lauded Douglas for his work on several high-profile FBI cases in West Virginia and commended him for his "innovative prosecution strategies, grit, tenacity, aggressiveness, and deep legal knowledge."
Douglas has worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the past 11 years. Previously, he served in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office under the Attorney General's Honors Program. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he prosecutes federal criminal matters occurring in the Eastern Panhandle.
Douglas' prosecutorial skills and knowledge were cited particularly for a pair of prominent cases.
The first involved Reta Mays, a former nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to killing seven veterans and trying to kill an eighth with insulin injections between July 2017 to June 2018. The veterans ranged in ages 81 to 86, their military service times ranging from World War II to Vietnam.
Douglas was asked to be part of the lead counsel for the prosecution in Mays' trial after it had begun.
"I remember it was my last day before I was going on a holiday leave. [Former U.S. Attorney] Bill Powell asked if I wanted to take over this case. I was a little hesitant, because the case had been around about for 18 months -- and a lot of attorneys. I realized it could be one of those once-in-a-lifetime cases, so I said yes. Within six months, I was able to get her to plead guilty to those murder counts. In March 2020, I used a little known thing at the time called Zoom to present some of the evidence to attorneys and started those plea negotiations through Zoom in March and April of 2020," Douglas said.
In May 2021, Mays was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus 20 years on seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. While sentencing Mays, U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh called her the "worst kind" of monster. "You are the monster no one sees coming," the judge said.
Douglas was also part of the lead counsel for the espionage trial of Naval nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe and Diana Toebbe. In November 2022 in Martinsburg, the Annapolis husband and wife were sentenced to 232 months and 262 months, respectively, for conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships.
The couple had been arrested in October 2021 in Jefferson County by FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents. In February 2022, Jonathan Toebbe pleaded guilty in a Martinsburg federal court to charges that he conspired to sell classified military information about nuclear submarines to a foreign government.
According to a BBC News report, Diana Toebbe received the longer prison sentence because the judge suggested she masterminded the operation. Douglas had requested a three-year prison term for Diana Toebbe, but Judge Gina Groh imposed her 21-year sentence after saying, "It's clear to this court that Ms. Toebbe was probably driving the bus," among other considerations from the bench.
From Clay County to the courtroom
Douglas' father, Kanawha County Family Court Judge Jim Douglas, grew up in the Ivydale area of Clay County, as did his son and two siblings. "I was a divorce lawyer for several years and had a practice in Sutton," Jim Douglas said. "I tried to get him to join me, but he refused to do it. He told me he wanted to be a prosecutor. After a relatively short period, he earned his stripes and paid his dues."
"I pretty much went from K through 12th grade in Clay County schools," Jarod Douglas said. Before graduating from Clay County High School in 2002, he was twice named a Class AA All-State football wide receiver. "Based on that, [West Virginia University football coach] Rich Rodriguez let me be a preferred walk-on in 2002."
At roughly the same time, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) had nominated him for a West Point military appointment. "I let my fandom for WVU take over and accepted the football invitation," Douglas said. "I was mainly a practice player, although I got to play on the Sugar Bowl championship team and got a Sugar Bowl ring."
Away from the football field, he double-majored in political science and German in his Morgantown classrooms. He was admitted into WVU's College of Law in 2006.
"During my senior year of high school, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer like my dad," Douglas recounted. "I had taken advanced math classes, but I decided I'd rather work with people than with numbers. Growing up in Clay County, I hadn't been around U.S. Attorney offices or thought about it much.
"In 2008, I started looking for jobs. My dad had introduced me to Chief Judge John Preston Bailey. I accepted a clerkship with him and started with him in August 2009."
While serving as a law clerk for Bailey for three years, Douglas said, "I got used to federal court. It's the NBA of courts. Ninety percent of your work is criminal cases, seeing the work of U.S. attorneys."
In 2012, Douglas began double duty, working for Groh in Martinsburg as well as handling cases in Wheeling, commuting to and from the northern and eastern panhandles weekly. "Most of our cases were in Martinsburg," he said, "and there were two veteran U.S. Attorneys I got to see a lot of there. Each probably had 25 years of experience. That piqued my interest even more to possibly become an Assistant U.S. Attorney."
At the end of 2012, Groh offered him the opportunity to become a law clerk for a fourth year. "At that same time, I learned that there was a potential opening to get into the Department of Justice's Attorney General's Honors Program.
"That's generally a program based at the Justice Department for entry-level attorneys," Douglas explained. "Every year, they have what they call hiring components in the field. There was a component in the Civil Division in 2013. I found out about it the Friday before the admission period ended that Sunday. I came into Judge Bailey's office on Saturday morning and wrote all of the essays, about why I wanted to be an attorney and things like that. I interviewed and was accepted."
He was offered the Assistant U.S. Attorney position in the spring of 2013. Douglas began working on criminal cases in Martinsburg. "My first day, I also had to take on a criminal docket in Martinsburg. I was cutting my teeth on drug cases, some simple white-collar crimes.
"Another retirement of an Assistant U.S. Attorney is how I first got into the area of public corruption. In the fall of 2014, I transitioned back into Wheeling."
One of his first public corruption cases involved Bob Andrew, a former West Virginia Division of Highways official, who committed suicide hours after being indicted on federal racketeering charges of creating a "culture of corruption" in the WVDOH.
"That immediately led to a second DOH case involving Bruce Kenney in, basically, a pay-for-play scheme that we prosecuted in Wheeling," Douglas said. On Dec. 14, 2016, ex-WVDOH employee Kenney pleaded guilty to wire and tax fraud, admitting he used his position to funnel work to a South Carolina business, receiving secret payments of nearly $200,000.
"So I got my feet wet in public corruption cases and then there were some civil rights cases coming in."
Douglas was named a National Security Attorney five years ago. "I started to learn how to work national security. I have to have top secret clearance, special trainings, things like that."
Sharing his legal expertise
Following the conviction of Mays, Douglas has written articles regarding the case for West Virginia Lawyer and American Bar Association Criminal Justice magazines. He was also interviewed about the case last year for the A&E network program "Interrogation Raw" and the documentary series "Forensic Files II," both of which aired last summer.
Douglas was also recognized in 2022 for his work in the Mays case during the Annual Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency Awards ceremony. "Our team also received the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General Award. The most prestigious was one from the Justice Department, the Attorney General's Award for Distinguished Service, in July. It's the Justice Department's second highest award for employee performance. It was the first Northern District case to receive an Attorney General's Award."
He added the Toebbe espionage case is a possible candidate for the 2023 award.
"I've been able to do some significant speaking engagements from the Toebbe case. Our prosecution team presented the case at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina, this past summer. Near the end of last year, members of our team got to go to Australia to present to their federal police and domestic agencies about the case.
"I appreciate the honors, and I know how rare it is to receive these honors," Douglas said, "but I don't do this job for those honors -- that's not what gives me the satisfaction of doing the job. What gives me satisfaction is working with the great and talented investigators, and, in the Reta Mays case, the very talented medical experts. My job is to bring it together to some kind of resolution. Especially with the Reta Mays case, because there were victims involved and bringing some semblance of closure to those surviving family members and that there was some justice done. In the Toebbe case, it was my job, obviously, to protect national security.
"It's approaching the challenges these cases present and working in a teamwork fashion, trying to reach a resolution that we can be proud of. The Reta Mays case was the most challenging, because we were dealing with death and the potential for the death penalty. There was a lot of scrutiny going on with senators and the Attorney General of the United States, with all of the surviving families, and with the medical experts presenting evidence you generally don't have to deal with. Just about every medical field was involved, from pharmaceutical to clinical to psychology," he said.
"You just approach cases with that teamwork fashion, relying on experts and investigators, just trying to be intuitive, creative, and reasonable to reach a resolution."
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