Robert C. Byrd federal courthouse in Charleston.
CHARLESTON – A former assistant U.S. attorney who led a team of prosecutors who investigated fraud has been charged with five counts of identity theft.
Monica Dillon used the identities of five people to open and operate online gambling accounts and conduct financial transactions, according to an information filed last month in federal court. She is accused of unlawful activities to obtain items of value.
For nearly 20 years, Dillon worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Dillon
“I was the Deputy Criminal Chief of the White-Collar Fraud, Health Care Fraud, Environmental, Tax and Civil Rights Section from 2021 to 2024,” Dillon wrote on her LinkedIn page. “I led a team of eight attorneys in the investigation and prosecution of all the white-collar fraud, health care fraud, environmental, tax and civil rights prosecutions.”
Before that, Dillon was an advisor for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and a U.S. District Court law clerk.
According to court filings, she committed her crimes from 2021 to 2023 while she was leading the white-collar fraud section. They also say Dillon took the name, Social Security number and date of birth” of five people with the intent to commit unlawful activity.
Dillon is scheduled to appear in federal court May 12 for a plea hearing, at which she intends to plead guilty, according to court documents.
The court filings also show Dillon has agreed to a pretrial diversion program that would allow for her to have the criminal charges dismissed if she completes a period of court-ordered supervision.
The pretrial diversion requires Dillon to be under supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for two years, to pay one victim $30,000 in restitution and to not commit other crimes, to not obstruct justice and to not make false statements. Upon completion, prosecutors agree to move to dismiss all five counts of identity theft. If she fails, prosecutors can pursue sentencing.
In January 2025, the West Virginia Supreme Court annulled Dillon’s law license by voluntary consent. The state Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel had presented the petition for annulment to the court on December 9, 2024.
According to West Virginia State Bar records, Coleman was admitted to the bar on September 26, 2000. She filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and that case still is pending in federal court.
In a 2018 press release by former U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart, he called Coleman “a veteran prosecutor with a record of aggressive, fearless prosecution.”
The 2021 West Virginia Human Rights Commission annual report said Coleman was a 2000 graduate of West Virginia University College of Law and had been an assistant U.S. Attorney since 2005. At the time, she served as the office’s Lead Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Attorney and as Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator.
Dillon is being represented by Tim Carrico of Carrico Law Offices in Charleston. The government is being represented by special assistant U.S. Attorney Sally Sullivan of Charlottesville, Va., and District Judge Kenneth Bell from the Western District of North Carolina is overseeing the case. Sullivan and Bell were assigned to handle the matter because Dillon worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 2:26-cr-00048 (West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals case number 24-717)
