Veteran federal prosecutor to be interim U.S. Attorney for Northern District

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- A veteran federal prosecutor has been approved as the interim U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Scott Woodward, 51, will hold the office until it is filled permanently. Woodward is taking over after the departure of U.S.

Attorney Steve Lewis, who announced he was leaving after seven years on the job.

Woodward was an assistant in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston from 1982 until 1990, when he shifted to the Tulsa office.

He was Lewis' first assistant from Aug. 20, 1995, until Lewis left office Saturday to go into private practice.

Woodward received a 2000 Director's Award for Executive Achievement last October from Attorney General Janet Reno. He was one of only six federal prosecutors to receive the honor.

Woodward was honored for his work on a Justice Department terrorism preparedness project, for a local initiative meant to steer juvenile offenders away from crime and for his prosecutions of armed robbery cases.

Woodward has prosecuted 56 defendants in armed commercial robberies over the past three-and-a-half years. Those defendants are believed to have committed as many as 205 robberies during that span.