McGettigan's new position is associate managing director of Vance International Consulting Inc. of Oakton, Va. The company, founded by a former Secret Service agent, Chuck Vance, specializes in security for celebrities and politicians and corporate investigations. The work will take McGettigan out of the world of local murders and into an international realm of counterfeiters, hidden wiretaps and white-collar crime.
Vance is perhaps best known for having been married to former President Gerald R. Ford's daughter, Susan.
``I wasn't unhappy with my work in the slightest,'' said McGettigan, a native of Philadelphia. ``But this job offers an opportunity to do very sophisticated investigating work on an international playing field. And it promises to be lucrative as well.''
Before taking his $70,000-a-year post with Delaware County two years ago, McGettigan spent three years as chief deputy attorney general for criminal investigations and prosecutions in Harrisburg. Before that, he spent 11 years as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.
The seeds of McGettigan's latest post were sown during his stint in Philadelphia. There, he worked for William G. Chadwick Jr., who at the time was the first assistant district attorney of Philadelphia and who later became the acting district attorney when Ron Castille resigned.
Chadwick is now managing director at Vance International. The two men had lunch recently, McGettigan said, and soon afterward, Chadwick called with the job offer.
``It was such a good offer, it was impossible to say no,'' McGettigan said. ``Presumably, I would have left prosecuting sometime, and an offer like this might not come along again.''
Delaware County District Attorney Patrick L. Meehan, who said he is not likely to fill McGettigan's chair any time soon, likened his former first assistant to ``a fascinating character in a crime novel.''
``Joe had a great deal of wisdom, experience and judgment,'' Meehan said. ``We're going to miss him terribly.''
Dennis C. McAndrews, who worked with McGettigan on the du Pont trial, echoed Meehan's sentiments.
``This is certainly a loss to the world of prosecution,'' McAndrews said. ``He was extremely good to me and wonderful to work with in a case that would have caused two people working as closely as we did to come out hating each other.''
