Carlos Acosta
Associate Judge at the District Court of Maryland

​Carlos F. Acosta is a Maryland District Court judge sitting in Montgomery County, MD. Prior to this appointment, he served as Inspector General for the Prince George’s County Police Department. In that role J. Acosta functioned as the independent authority over the Internal Affairs Division, as well as being responsible to investigate systemic or programmatic issues affecting the police department’s missions. Previously, he served as Deputy State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County and as a Trial Attorney for the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Gang Squad. As a federal prosecutor, he also served as program manager for the Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance, and Training program for the Mérida Initiative (Mexico). He has also has been a speaker on panel discussions for the American Bar Association on ethical issues for public lawyers, as well as legal issues for Inspectors General. Judge Acosta was asked to present a week-long course in Kosovo on “Death Investigations” to national police and prosecutors on behalf of the U.S. Department of State and Department of Justice. He was invited to Borneo to assist in a law enforcement course (July 2017) and made several presentations to judges, prosecutors and conservationists on the topics of Wildlife Smuggling and Prosecutions. Judge Acosta was a Course Instructor in Dubrovnik, Croatia for a US DOJ / US State Department Program entitled “Strengthening Criminal Justice Institutions and the Rule of Law in Central and Eastern Europe” (Fall 2018). In 2019, he was an invited Panelist on “Handling Allegations of Corruption in Arbitration and Judicial Dispute Resolution” (AU-WCL), and was a Course Instructor in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a US DOJ / US State Department program entitled “Trial Advocacy in Terrorism Cases (Fall 2019). Judge Acosta has taught at the American University Washington College of Law as an adjunct Associate Professor of Law since 1997. In that capacity, he currently teaches in the Trial Advocacy Program instructing courses in prosecutorial ethics as well as prosecuting complex homicides.