The following is a brief of the story. For the full version, see the Wednesday, Oct. 29 print edition of the BDN.

Major R. Coleman, Assistant United States Attorney recently received two awards for his service in Iraq. Coleman, son of the late Major A. and Marjorie D. Coleman of Boonville was notified that he would be awarded the U.S. Department of the Army’s Meritorious Civilian Service Medal for his service in Iraq.

Coleman is a 1965 graduate of Laura Speed Elliot High School. He received his B.S. Degree from the University of Central Missouri in 1970. He then received his Juris Doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago Kent College of Law in 1987.

Coleman has been admitted to practice law by the state of Illinois, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. third Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

After a distinguished career in law enforcement, Coleman began his legal career in 1987 after completing law school and passing the Illinois Bar.

In 1988, he was appointed to the position of Assistant State’s Attorney with the Cook County State’s Attorney Office in Chicago, Illinois. During his years of service with the office, he left as a First Chair/lead prosecutor, in 1995 to join the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana in the Indianapolis Office.

Coleman then worked as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Attorney from 1995-2004. He then accepted a transfer within the U.S. Department of Justice to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of the Virgin Islands to become the Ant Terrorism Task Force Attorney.

After four years in the position of Anti Terrorism Task Force Attorney and several other roles within the District of the Virgin Islands Office, the United States Department of Justice selected Coleman for the position of Resident Legal Advisor to the Law and Order Task Force (LAOTF) in Rusafa, Iraq.