The latest class of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy will graduate tonight, with newly appointed U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town in attendance.

The public is invited to attend the graduation which will begin at 6 p.m. at Temple Baptist Church on Alabama 157.

Town, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, will be the keynote speaker. He was one of the first three U.S. Attorneys nominated by President Donald Trump. He confirmed by the U.S. Senate August 3.

“We are glad that Mr. Town is coming to Cullman County and we look forward to having him. He has a long career as being tough on crime,” said Sheriff Matt Gentry.

Town, a former judge advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps, was a prosecutor in the Madison County District Attorney’s Office from 2005, when he moved to Huntsville, until his confirmation as U.S. Attorney. Town left the District Attorney’s Office as a senior prosecutor handling a full catalogue of crimes, including capital murder, murder, robbery and burglary.

Town also was instrumental in forming the Madison County Veterans Court, one of the first such diversionary courts in Alabama dedicated to the physical and mental health needs of veterans in the criminal justice system.

He served in the Marine Corps for 12 years and was honorably discharged in 2008, attaining the rank of Major. Before moving to Alabama, he was outside counsel at a large firm in New Jersey focused on commercial defense of major pharmaceutical, commercial and surety companies involved in litigation with federal agencies.

Town has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in the Department of Political Science with the curriculum focused on executive war powers and the Geneva Conventions.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in government and international relations from the University of Notre Dame in 1995 and received his juris doctorate from the Seton Hall University School of Law in 1998. He is a member of the state bars of Indiana, New Jersey and Alabama, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He lives with his wife and daughter in Huntsville.