WW II vet’s grandkid joins OAG’s Criminal Division

CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro Castro administers the oath to assistant attorney general Betsy Weintraub at the Supreme Court on Monday. Witnessing the ceremony, from left, are acting chief prosecutor Chester Hinds, and assistant attorneys general Matthew Baisley, Heather Barcinas, and Emily Cohen. (Ferdie Dela Torre)

CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro Castro administers the oath to assistant attorney general Betsy Weintraub at the Supreme Court on Monday. Witnessing the ceremony, from left, are acting chief prosecutor Chester Hinds, and assistant attorneys general Matthew Baisley, Heather Barcinas, and Emily Cohen. (Ferdie Dela Torre)

Betsy Weintraub, the granddaughter of a World War II veteran who was assigned on Tinian, has joined the Office of the Attorney General’s Criminal Division.

Weintraub was sworn in on Monday as an assistant attorney general before CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro Castro.
“I have always wanted to come here,” said Weintraub, disclosing that her grandfather, Sam Weintraub, served as head of the U.S. Army Air Corps G-2 security and intelligence for Tinian during World War II.

“I learned about Saipan from him when I was younger,” she said.

At the OAG, Weintraub will be working at the criminal appeals unit and will be handling violent crimes, sex crimes, and drug offenses.

She has a bachelor’s degree in English Rhetoric and Writing and French from the University of Tennessee. She obtained her juris doctor from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

While in law school, she earned CALI awards for excellence in trial advocacy, immigration law, and criminal procedure II.

Weintraub served as a law clerk to the criminal court judges of Shelby County, Tennessee. She served as an assistant district attorney general for the 30th Judicial District of Tennessee. As a criminal prosecutor, she represented the state in hundreds of bench trials and contested hearings.

In 2011, Weintraub tried 11 jury trials in criminal court and nine of those resulted in guilty verdicts.

After working for the district attorney’s office in Memphis as a prosecutor for three years, she went into private practice, joining the Fisher & Phillips LLP law firm office in Memphis.

Weintraub’s father, Jeff, is a lawyer and the regional managing partner for Fisher & Phillips LLP. Her brother is also a lawyer in Oakland, CA.

Acting chief prosecutor Chester Hinds said they’re looking forward to having Weintraub at the OAG’s Criminal Division.

“Since she’s been here, so far she already made a good impact on our office. She’s working on several projects already,” Hinds said, adding that Weintraub’s expertise is going to of great use here in the CNMI.

Weintraub has only been on Saipan for two weeks but already finds the island beautiful and the people warm. She said her late grandfather, Sam, was also a lawyer and enlisted in the U.S. Army right after he got married.

She said her grandfather ended up on Tinian, where he became a major and pioneered psychological warfare.

Weintraub said her grandfather absolutely loved Tinian and Saipan so he came back on the islands in the 1980s. She said her grandfather’s stories of the war were pretty amazing, prompting her to come here.

Weintraub visited Tinian for the first time last Tuesday. Local historian Don Farrell took her around the island. She said they went to some places on Tinian where her grandfather had been.

“It was so amazing. It was really like, I can’t wait to get back to Tinian,” she said.

Weintraub said Tinian was a part of her grandfather and that he felt like he was part of the island.

“I just like being out there, standing where he stood. Like I totally just felt what he felt for that place. It’s just amazing,” she said.