BIOGRAPHY OF GUEST SPEAKER, PATRICK L. CONNOLLY

Patrick Connolly is an attorney and a retired Special Agent (SA)

with the FBI. Prior to entry into the FBI in 1980, he served as a

local Prosecutor in Howard County, Maryland.  As an FBI SA, he

has served tours of duty in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.,

San Diego, California, and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His investigative/supervisory experience involved all investigative FBI programs to include Violent Crime, Organized Crime/Drugs, White Collar Crime, Public Corruption, Environmental Crime, Civil Rights,

and International/Domestic Terrorism. Many of these cases

involved long term investigations utilizing sophisticated investigative techniques targeting significant criminal enterprises. His past assignments have included tours as an FBI Congressional Representative on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and as an FBI

SA Attorney responsible for advising FBI management and field Divisions on a variety of legal issues with an emphasis on Electronic Surveillance and Sensitive/Undercover Operations. He was certified

as an FBI Hostage Negotiator/Crisis Intervention Specialist, Police Instructor, Undercover Agent, and Crisis Management Coordinator. 

As an FBI Supervisory Special Agent, he formed the first FBI Alien Smuggling/Human Trafficking Task Force in San Diego; built/oversaw the FBI’s North County Resident Agency in Carlsbad, California; served as the San Diego Division’s Crisis Management Coordinator and Hostage Negotiation/Crisis Intervention Team Leader; temporarily oversaw the FBI’s Detainee Operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,

and coordinated the FBI San Diego’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

He retired from the FBI in August 2003 and is currently a tenured Professor/Lead Instructor, Administration of Justice (AJ), MiraCosta College, Oceanside, California, responsible for the AJ program while also teaching several courses to include Introduction to the Administration of Justice, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Terrorism and Homeland Security. He is also currently serving as an elected member of MiraCosta’s Academic Senate Council. As an FBI Agent/attorney and as a professor of Criminal Justice, he has provided instructions/presentations to U.S. intelligence/law enforcement agencies, local community/business groups, and representatives of foreign military, diplomatic, and law enforcement agencies. Topics include FBI Operations, White Collar Crime, Constitutional Law, Interview and Interrogation, Criminal/National Security Law, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Crisis Management, Crisis Negotiation/Intervention, Patriot Act, etc. He has been a consultant for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST); and has been designated as an Expert Consultant by the U.S. National Institute of Justice in the areas of Criminal Justice, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Transnational Crime, and Crisis Management.

He has served on the Boards of Directors for both of the Carlsbad communities in which he has lived, and is currently a member of the Carlsbad Unified School District’s Proposition P Oversight Committee.

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