RICHLAND, Wash.-Assistant United States Attorney Laurel Holland was selected as the Homeland Security Investigations Prosecutor of the Year for the Eastern District of Washington.
Vanessa Waldref, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington announced Holland as the Prosecutor of the Year on Dec. 13.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office could not do this important work without the support of HSI and the Southeast Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,” said Holland who joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2023 as a founding member of its Richland branch.
Holland previously served as a Benton County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Yakima before joining the Richland branch in 2023, where she has focused on prosecuting cases involving child exploitation, according to a DOJ press release.
“Assistant United States Attorney Laurel Holland is tireless in her pursuit of justice on behalf of the young and most vulnerable among us,” said Waldref. “She approaches each case with compassion for the victim and is dedicated to holding offenders accountable.”
According to the DOJ, Holland has successfully prosecuted several child exploitation cases, including those of a Tri-Cities man convicted after trying to meet a 13-year-old for sex, as well as the case of a Richland man who distributed thousands of child sex abuse images from his parent’s home.
