The District of Columbia Board of Ethics and Government Accountability has selected Stacie Pittell to become the agency's general counsel.
Pittell is currently the assistant inspector general for investigations of the D.C. Office of the Inspector General, and formerly had served in various roles with the New York City Department of Investigation.
The city's ethics board investigates allegations of ethics-related misdeeds by D.C. public employees and elected officials.
The board was created earlier this year as part of an ethics overhaul passed by the D.C. Council. The city suffered several hits to its political reputation in the months preceding the announcement of the ethics board and the nomination of its leader, Robert Spagnoletti, former District of Columbia attorney general and a partner with D.C.'s Schertler & Onorato, in June.
This year, former D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. was sentenced to more than three years in prison for embezzling public funds. Former D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown pleaded guilty to bank fraud and campaign finance violations. And two of Mayor Vincent Gray's aides pleaded guilty to taking part in a scheme to divert campaign funds.
In addition to Spagnoletti, the other members of the city's ethics board are Laura Richards, a former career attorney with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Deborah Lathen, who runs a private consulting business.
According to an agency press release, Pittell began her career with the Kings County District Attorney's office in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she tried felony cases in the New York State Supreme Court.
Neither Pittell nor Spagnoletti could immediately be reached for comment.
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