Cox reflects on U.S. attorney tenure

Note: This story is reprinted with permisson of The Southern Illinoisan By Becky Malkovich, The Southern BENTON - When A. Courtney Cox got the call to serve as one of only 93 U.S. attorneys, he wasn't sure answering it was the right thing to do. "I wasn't sure it was something I would be able to do," he said. "As I thought about what I was being asked to do, I realized it was a job that was important and in the nature of service to country and that I did want." But the Benton native was still skeptical. He called a trusted friend who assured him he could and should do the job. Still, there was the four-day-a-week drive from Benton to Fairview Heights to consider. "I talked to my wife, who said, ‘Your brother, Jon, is going to Afghanistan to serve the country. I think you can drive to Fairview Heights,' " he said with a laugh. "So I accepted." Appointed by the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Cox became the district's top prosecutor in November 2007. His last day in office was Friday, when Stephen Wigginton was sworn in as the new U.S. attorney for the southern district. Entering the office after a long career in private practice was a learning experience, Cox said. "When I became U.S. attorney, I was naive about child exploitation," Cox said. "I very quickly learned of the magnitude of the problem of child pornography and exploitation. It has changed the way I look at the Internet and how I view people in general. There are 50,000 predators online looking to molest children and it's not talked about enough or dealt with enough by parents and educators. We vigorously prosecuted many but there are many, many more. "I think a society is judged by how it treats its children and elderly and I think we can do more to protect our children from this epidemic, because that's what it is ... an epidemic." Another epidemic is illegal drug use in the area. Not only does the district have crack, methamphetamine and heroin, but prescription drug abuse is growing at an alarming rate, he said. "People understand the use of some drugs is illegal, but they think if a drug is prescribed, how can it hurt them? OxyContin leads to heroin as people search for more intensity. Mexican heroin is six times stronger and we are seeing many deaths from overdoses. That's an issue we are not ahead of and we need to be educating people about it," he said. However, Cox said, the illegal drug use is a symptom of a larger problem. "It's the desire to get high that is the problem. You could take away all the meth, but you wouldn't get rid of the problem. People would just migrate to a different drug. It's not the specific drug, but the desire for what the drug does that we have to address in the community," he said. Cox said he will miss the talented and dedicated people he got to know in his office, the court system and law enforcement. He will start a new job today in the Carbondale office of Sandberg Phoenix & von Gontard P.C., where he will specialize in business and employment law. "I practiced law 25 years before I became U.S. attorney and I always enjoyed representing clients," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting back to it." beckymalk@gmail.com