Lyla Zeidan, JD – Lead Instructor and Coordinator
Lyla is the Legal Program Manager and Legal Instructor for the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy (NVCJTA) in Ashburn, Virginia. She assists the personal training instructors as well as the control tactics instructors. She conducts research and provides legal opinions that affect the law enforcement community. She also provides in-service training and prepares legal online training programs. In addition, she is a speaker for various events held by law enforcement agencies and organizations such as the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the Florida Police Legal Advisors Training Program (PLATP). Lastly, she is certified in critical incident stress management (CISM) and is a legal subject matter expert for the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Prior to joining the Academy, Lyla served as an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney and Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia Beach where she prosecuted several thousands of cases ranging from DUI to Homicide. In addition, she trained police officers as well as new attorneys.
Lyla holds a Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach. She graduated summa cum laude from East Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing. Lyla is licensed to practice law in Virginia and Washington, DC. She is a member of many professional organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police (VACP), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Legal Officers Section (LOS) of the IACP.
Poppi Ritacco, JD, LLM – FLETC Certified Senior Legal Instructor
Poppi Ritacco is the Legal Studies Program Coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh. Poppi received her B.A. degree from Carleton College and her law degree (J.D.) from Harvard. She also has an advanced law degree (LL.M.) in Criminal Law from the University of Buffalo. Poppi is also a certified FLETC Senior Legal Instructor. An award-winning instructor, she taught every course in the legal block in all four FLETC Basic programs. Poppi was also the Chief Editor for the FLETC Legal Handbook. Prior to FLETC, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. From 2007 to 2009, she worked as an Assistant Attorney General in Washington D.C. Poppi is a member of the Massachusetts and Washington D.C. bars.
Jim McAdams, JD – FLETC Certified Senior Legal Instructor
Jim McAdams is a graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina, a cum laude graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, and a member of the Florida Bar. Before retiring from the United States Department of Justice in 2006, he spent 34 years in the federal court family, first as a United States Probation Officer in Miami, Florida, and then nearly 26 years as an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) in the Southern District of Florida (SDFL). While an AUSA Jim served in the appellate and criminal trial divisions of the SDFL and in 1988 was appointed by the United States Attorney as Chief of the Narcotics Division for the SDFL. He was one of the four AUSA’s who prosecuted Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega. In 1992, Attorney General William Barr appointed him as the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed him in 1994 to be the law enforcement chairman of the Joint Intelligence Community & Law Enforcement Task Force and to serve as her Counsel for Intelligence Policy in which position, he oversaw the DOJ’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Program. For nearly 12 years from 2007 to 2019, Jim served as a FLETC Senior Legal Instructor where he was certified to instruct literally every legal course taught by FLETC. He also maintained the lesson plan and was primarily responsible for curriculum development in Electronic Surveillance Law.
John W. Seaman, JD – FLETC Certified Senior Legal Instructor
John received his B.A. degree from Augusta State University Augusta, Georgia and a J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta, Georgia. After law school he joined the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. His Army experience included prosecuting Courts Martial cases and serving as a Special Assistant United States Attorney (SAUSA). After serving in the Army, he began working as an Assistant District Counsel for the Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service. The I.N.S. subsequently became Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Department of Homeland Security. While serving with the I.N.S. and I.C.E., he represented the government in immigration proceedings before the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review. He most recently served as a Senior Instructor and Attorney-Advisor for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. He is a subject matter expert in every legal topic taught by FLETC including: Constitutional Law, Federal Criminal Law, and Federal Court Procedures. John is a member of the Georgia and Arizona bars.
Gary Ainley, JD – FLETC Certified Senior Legal Instructor
Gary Ainley received both a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University. Gary then received his Juris Doctor from Akron University. After being honorably discharged from the United States Army, Gary became a Special Agent with the IRS (CID). He spent years investigating narcotics cases, money laundering cases, and asset forfeiture cases. He retired as a Special Agent in 2002 and was rehired to serve as a Senior Instructor in the Legal Division at FLETC until his retirement in 2011. Gary is a subject matter expert in every topic taught by the FLETC Legal Division including: Constitutional Law, Search and Seizure Law, Self-Incrimination, Federal Criminal Law, and Electronic Law and Evidence.
Brian Iten, JD – Florida Criminal Law Expert and Lead Instructor
Brian Iten is a police agency legal advisor for a west central Florida law enforcement agency of over 650 sworn officers. Since March of 2019, he has provided classroom instruction – on a part-time basis – to state and local police officers at the National Computer Forensic Institute in Hoover, Alabama. Brian served as a Circuit Court Judge for over 3 years in Florida’s 12th Judicial Circuit, where he presided over a multitude of bench and jury trials, in both the felony and civil divisions. For the 21 years preceding his appointment to the bench, Brian was a state prosecutor in Manatee County, Florida. During his tenure as a prosecuting attorney, Brian regularly lectured to local police agencies, with a primary focus on search and seizure, and taught at seminars sponsored by the Institute of Police Technology and Management, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, and the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association. He has tried over 100 criminal cases, including sexual batteries, armed robberies, and homicides. He has also served as an adjunct instructor at both State College of Florida and Manatee Technical College’s Law Enforcement Academy.
Tim Miller, JD – Use of Force Subject Matter Expert and Lead Instructor
Mr. Miller was an active duty Marine Corps judge advocate for twenty years. He was a prosecutor, defense counsel, and military judge. As senior legal counsel for several commands, he oversaw the prosecution of felony and misdemeanor cases. Mr. Miller retired from the Marine Corps in June 2004. The following he month joined the Legal Division for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Georgia. He teaches federal criminal law and procedure to special agents and uniformed officers. Mr. Miller is current in search and seizure law (the Fourth Amendment) as well as the law of interrogations (the Fifth and Sixth Amendments). He taught advanced subjects on wiretapping (18 U.S.C. § 2510. et seq); tracking devices and pole cameras; electronic devices that trace telephone calls and electronic communications; and obtaining stored communications under the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act. Mr. Miller was also the Use of Force Subject Matter Expert for the Legal Division. He presented on emerging issues in use of force at conferences for the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Law Enforcement and Educators and Trainers Association, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He wrote the “Use of Force-Legal Aspects” chapter for the DHS Legal Training Handbook. He is licensed to practice to law in Illinois and Missouri.