Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Tuesday that A.J. Roop will serve as the DOJ’s next Chief of Staff. A seven-year veteran of the DOJ, Roop has served as State Prosecutor throughout AG Jennings’ term, leading the DOJ’s largest Division, maintaining the Department’s high conviction rate in gun cases, and guiding the Criminal Division through a litany of high-profile cases, including several major gang indictments. He succeeds former Chief of Staff Rob Coupe, who left the position in December to pursue a new opportunity at the Delaware Department of Technology & Information.
Prior to his work as State Prosecutor, Roop served as Unit Head of the Crime Strategies Unit, which was the DOJ’s first proactive crime prevention unit. In 2019, AG Jennings converted the Crime Strategies Unit to the Community Engagement Unit. Roop has also worked in private practice as a criminal defense attorney. He is a graduate of Salesianum School, University of Delaware (BA), and a cum laude graduate of Delaware Law School at Widener University (JD).
AG Jennings announced several other moves in the DOJ’s leadership team:
A.J. Roop will be succeeded as State Prosecutor by Dan Logan, who returns to the Delaware DOJ after serving for seven years as the Director of Programs for the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) in Delaware, where he oversaw the USAO’s prevention and reentry efforts while maintaining a full criminal caseload. From 2007 to 2016, Logan was a prosecutor with the Delaware DOJ, rising from an Assistant Attorney General to become the first Unit Head of the aforementioned Crime Strategies Unit. Logan was also instrumental in the Department’s criminal nuisance abatement efforts and prosecuted numerous felony trials and served as the Assistant Unit Head for the Wilmington Unit. He is a graduate of Salesianum School, the University of Tennessee (BA), and Louisiana State University School of Law (JD).
With former State Solicitor Aaron Goldstein assuming a new role as counsel to the Department of State after seven years as Chief Deputy Attorney General and State Solicitor, AG Jennings has named Patty Davis to lead the DOJ’s Civil Division as State Solicitor. Davis, who joined the DOJ in 2004, has distinguished herself as one of the most experienced civil attorneys in Delaware’s largest law firm, specializing in administrative law and the Freedom of Information Act. Her DOJ career has included assignments to a large variety of executive branch agencies as general counsel and as a defensive litigator, rising from a line Deputy to the rank of Unit Head and Deputy State Solicitor before assuming her current role. She is a graduate of Christiana High School, Widener University (BA), and the Charles Widger School of Law at Villanova University (JD).
AG Jennings has also announced that Family Division Director Abby Rodgers will transition into a new role as Chief Prosecutor for New Castle County. In her new role, Rodgers will oversee the Criminal Division’s largest staff cohort and directly supervise many of Delaware’s most serious felony prosecutions. Rodgers, who has led DOJ’s Family Division for six years, is a 16-year veteran of the DOJ whose service has included four years as Commander of the Child Predator Task Force, along with assignments in the Rape Unit, Domestic Violence Unit, Felony Trial Unit, and Misdemeanor Trial Unit.
Rodgers’ legacy includes pioneering work on human trafficking. She championed Delaware’s first human trafficking laws and the formation of the DOJ’s first Human Trafficking Unit, which she has led since January 2022. Rodgers has also worked in private practice, as an adjunct professor at Delaware Law School and the University of Delaware, and as a volunteer with several nonprofits, including service as the former President of Prevent Child Abuse Delaware. She is a graduate of Ursuline Academy, Gettysburg College (BA), and the Charles Widger School of Law at Villanova University (JD).
Rodgers will be succeeded by Acting Family Division Director Sara Reedy. Reedy, who has worked in both the Criminal Division and Family Division, has served in the Juvenile Delinquency and Truancy Unit in 2016 and has been the Assistant Head of that Unit since 2022. Reedy also has an additional nine years of field work experience with the Division of Family Services, — two as a Family Service Specialist with an Adolescent Treatment caseload and seven as a Child Care Licensing Specialist — where she worked while earning both her masters degree and her juris doctorate. Reedy is a graduate of the University of Delaware (BA), St. Joseph’s University (MS), and Delaware Law School at Widener University (JD).
“We’ve been spoiled with an incredibly talented and qualified leadership team from Day One,” said Attorney General Jennings. “Rob Coupe, and his predecessor, Greg Patterson, were phenomenal Chiefs of Staff whom anyone would be hard-pressed to succeed. Luckily, we have A.J. Roop, a proven leader in our office who has agreed to take on a big job after serving as the bedrock of the Criminal Division for four years. Staff talent is the DOJ’s greatest asset, and the fact that we’re able to retain, regain, and promote incredible leaders like A.J., Dan, Patty, Abby, and Sara is a boon to our Department and the entire State.”