Most Interesting People 2017: Carole Rendon

Why She’s Interesting: After a colorful legal career that has included busting Asian organized crime rings and prosecuting members of the mafia, Rendon stepped into the shoes of Steven Dettlebach, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, last year. Ascending from Dettelbach’s first assistant, she’s the first woman in the Northern District of Ohio’s Justice Department to hold the top post and now works on the most pressing issues facing the region, including the heroin epidemic and police reform.

Picking Priorities: Rendon calls the heroin and opioid crisis the biggest health care and law enforcement crisis she’s seen in her career, impacting all 40 Ohio counties in the district. Meanwhile, she believes the police reform efforts underway in Cleveland will set the standard for the entire country. “They are embracing a level of reform that is comprehensive and sustainable. When it’s done, it won’t just make our community safer, it will make our law enforcement officers safer.”

Mob Scene: As part of the Organized Crime Strike Force in Boston in the early 1990s, Rendon prosecuted a wannabe mafioso named Gigi Portella on a weapons charge. His mother was in the courtroom. “He yells out, ‘Hey, ma! How the f--- are ya?’ I literally almost fell out of my chair.” Years later, she heard a story on NPR about a former federal inmate alleging that the government implanted a tracking device in his buttocks. “I’m listening thinking, This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It turned out to be Gigi Portella!”

Trump Card: It’s typical for a change in presidential administration to spark a shake-up in the Justice Department “Technically, I serve at the pleasure of the president.” It’s not uncommon for a new chief executive to wipe the roster of U.S. attorneys clean and start over. What the incoming Trump administration will mean for Rendon’s future is yet to be seen.

Curtain Close: After graduating from Mayfield High School, Rendon entered Northwestern University as a theater major but quickly realized the life of an actor wasn’t for her. She graduated in 1984 with a political science degree instead. “Those skills helped me immensely as a trial lawyer. Essentially what you’re trying to do is tell a story. You have a built-in audience in a jury, but if they don’t like the show, they don’t get to leave at intermission.”

She’s With The Band: Her husband, Michael, a retired immigration and customs enforcement agent, is lead singer of the local country-western band Gringo Stew, and formerly headlined a band in Boston called Blue Hill Kickers. U.S. attorney by day, but come weekends? “I’m a groupie.”