WHAT: Investiture of Heidi M. Pasichow 
 
WHERE: Atrium, Moultrie Courthouse – Third Floor, 500 Indiana Ave, NW 
 
WHEN: Friday, October 31, 2008 at 4:00 pm 
 
WHO:  Chief Judge Lee F. Satterfield   Judge-designate Heidi M. Pasichow 
 
 
Biography:  On December 5, 2006, President George W. Bush nominated Heidi M. Pasichow to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Senate confirmed the nomination on August 1, 2008.    

During her distinguished career in the United States Attorney’s Office, Ms. Pasichow coordinated law enforcement efforts in hundreds of death and homicide investigations, conducted or supervised hundreds of grand jury investigations and grand jury presentations of violent crimes and homicides, resolved hundreds of these cases pre-trial and brought more than 60 cases to jury trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She handled some of the most serious homicide prosecutions brought in Superior Court: the unprecedented application of the felony murder statue to a vehicular fatality that left a four year-old child dead at a bus stop, the shooting rampage at a public food market brought on by a turf war that ended with eight victims and one fatality, and the violent rape and stabbing murder of an elderly woman by her eighteen year-old neighbor.  

Judge Pasichow was born in Queens, New York. She attended public schools in Oceanside, Long Island, New York. She relocated to Washington, DC, in 1973, to pursue her bachelor’s degree at The George Washington University where she graduated with Distinction in 1977 and was entered into the membership of Phi Beta Kappa.

While pursuing her education, Judge Pasichow worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for National Security Studies. Upon graduation, she served as a Research Associate at the Brookings Institution. Judge Pasichow enrolled in the evening law program at The American University, Washington College of Law. During that time she was a student attorney with the District of Columbia’s Law Student’s in Court Program, a Legislative Assistant for a member of the United States House of Representatives, and a Law Clerk in the Office of Civil Rights at the United States Department of Commerce. After receiving her Juris Doctor degree in 1981, Judge Pasichow worked in the area of occupational health for administrative law judges on the Benefits Review Board at the United States Department of Labor.  

Judge Pasichow turned her sights to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where she would spend over twenty-two years serving the District of Columbia community. From 1983 to 1985, Judge Pasichow served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Sylvia Bacon of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, an experience that changed the path of her legal career and eventually brought her into the DC Superior Court as a litigator.    

In 1986, Judge Pasichow was sworn in as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, where she remained until her appointment as Associate Judge. She served in the Appellate Division early in her career and in all sections of the Superior Court Division. During her tenure, Judge Pasichow served as Deputy Chief of the Homicide Division, Chief of the Violent Crime Section, District Chief of the Community Prosecution-Major Crimes Section for the Second and Fourth Police Districts, and Special Counsel for Professional Development in the Superior Court Division. In those roles, she managed line prosecutors and their caseloads, and worked to advance the Office’s presence in and participation with community crime-solving efforts.

Judge Pasichow worked closely with the Survivors of Homicide organization and assisted in coordinating the expansion of the United States Attorney’s Office’s community prosecution efforts.  

Commencing in 1989, Judge Pasichow handled complex criminal cases and prosecuted serious violent offenders detained pre-trial. The following year, in 1990, she was promoted to the Homicide Section where she began to prosecute homicide cases. In 1994, as Deputy Chief of the Homicide Section, Judge Pasichow supervised the screening, grand jury investigation, and prosecution of homicide cases. She also assisted in coordinating efforts to establish a law-enforcement protocol for child deaths and served as the US Attorney’s Office’s representative on the Child Death Fatality Review Committee.  

In 1998, Judge Pasichow was promoted to Chief of the Violent Crime Section and led prosecutorial efforts to bring justice to victims of violent offenses city-wide. In 1999, the United States Attorney expanded the community prosecution effort to all seven police districts in an effort to enhance effectiveness in crime prevention, reduction, and prosecution by addressing issues unique to each particular community. Judge Pasichow worked closely with the United States Attorney during that transition and was responsible for coordinating efforts with the community’s residents, school officials, civic organizations, and law-enforcement agencies. Amongst others, the efforts addressed quality of life and nuisance crimes, teenage violence, school truancy, and underage drinking in commercial establishments.  

In 2002, after over thirteen years of prosecuting or supervising the prosecution of violent offenders, Judge Pasichow was appointed Special Counsel for Professional Development, a position that focused exclusively on the professional development and advocacy skills of prosecutors practicing before the DC Superior Court. She has also instructed Assistant United States Attorneys across the country in areas of trial advocacy, criminal procedure, and evidence, at the United States Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center.  

Before returning to the Homicide Section in 2006 to focus on the grand jury investigation and prosecution of previously unsolved “cold” murders and domestic and child homicides, Judge Pasichow practiced before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for almost two years, handling a variety of federal cases for the Transnational Major Crimes and Federal Major Crimes Sections of the Office’s Criminal Division.  

During her distinguished career in the United States Attorney’s Office, Judge Pasichow coordinated law enforcement efforts in hundreds of death and homicide investigations, conducted or supervised hundreds of grand jury investigations and grand jury presentations of violent crimes and homicides, resolved hundreds of these cases pre-trial and brought more than 60 cases to jury trial. She personally handled some of the most serious homicide prosecutions brought in Superior Court: the unprecedented application of the felony murder statue to a vehicular fatality that left a four year-old child dead at a bus stop, the shooting rampage at a public food market brought on by a turf war that ended with eight victims and one fatality, and the violent rape and stabbing murder of an elderly woman by her eighteen year-old neighbor.  

Judge Pasichow is active with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, serving as a faculty member since 1998. She teaches basic and advanced trial advocacy skills to attorneys through the Georgetown University Law School’s Continuing Legal Education/NITA Program. In 2007, Judge Pasichow was honored with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s Justin D. Simon Award for Excellence in Teaching.