Former U.S. Marshal Mark Gregoline clearly remembers where he was on December 31st, 2022. He was tracking down a dangerous man who chased a female police officer and murdered her with her own gun after shooting her partner. The man ended up hiding out in a small town in eastern Indiana but that was no match for Gregoline. He and his team found the man and arrested him.
Another case he worked on was catching three prisoners that escaped from Michigan City prison. He tracked them down and arrested all of them. This case appeared on National Geographic where Mark was interviewed about the case, and it was featured on a show called Prison Break.
Not all of his cases were as dramatic as these ones but no matter what case it was, he was determined to solve it.
His duties as a federal marshal were intense and demanding but he made it through.
“The U.S. Marshal is responsible for the judiciary, so all the federal judges, prosecutors,” Mr. Gregoline said. “we were also responsible for federal fugitives and we also had task forces where we partnered with state and local agencies to try to arrest the worst type of fugitive, people wanted for murder, rape, robbery, child molesters, that kind of stuff.”
Now that he is retired, Mr. Gregoline wanted to use his past experience to teach potential officers in law. He pursues that by becoming the criminal justice teacher at Merrillville High School.
“I’m able to bring a lot of the training and experiences I have into the classroom and give real world examples,” he said, “I was a chief when I retired, so I have all that experience in between and I think that gives me an opportunity to share that with the students.”
Mr. Gregoline has a history with Merrillville and he knows how much this program can impact our students.
“I graduated from Merrillville High School,” he said, “and there was absolutely nothing like this when I was here at Merrillville. I just thought it was an opportunity to not only give back to my community and the high school I went to, but something for the kids that are potentially interested in a criminal justice career.”
Mr. Gregoline is appreciative of his experiences throughout his career but he has a piece of advice for his students that he thinks could benefit them through their career.
Before joining the Marshal’s service, Mr. Gregoline served as a police officer in Gary and Merrillville.
“If I had to do it all over again, because this wasn’t available to me, I think I would have probably joined the military and tried to get a contract to be law enforcement in the military,” he said. “Even though I say that, I do appreciate the experiences I had as a police officer.”
