Jackie Lacey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jackie Lacey
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| 42nd District Attorney of Los Angeles County | |
| In office December 3, 2012 – December 7, 2020 |
|
| Preceded by | Steve Cooley |
| Succeeded by | George Gascón |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jacquelyn Phillips
February 27, 1957 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse |
David Lacey
(m. 1980; died 2022) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of California, Irvine (BA) University of Southern California (JD) |
Jacquelyn Phillips Lacey (born February 27, 1957) is an American politician who served as the District Attorney of Los Angeles County from December 3, 2012 to December 7, 2020. Lacey is the first woman, and first African-American, to serve as LA District Attorney since the office was created in 1850.
Contents
Early life and education
Lacey was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Crenshaw neighborhood. Her father, Louis Phillips, was a City of Los Angeles Lot Cleaning employee, and her mother, Addie Phillips, was a garment factory worker. Lacey attended Dorsey High School, graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a degree in psychology in 1979, and graduated from the University of Southern California Law School in 1982.
Professional career
Lacey joined the District Attorney's Office in 1986 as a deputy district attorney. Lacey prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases while serving as a deputy district attorney. Lacey continued to move up through the ranks, taking on management and executive roles in the office in 2000. In 2011, she was named Chief Deputy District Attorney, the second-in-command to the District Attorney.
Los Angeles County District Attorney
As LA county DA, Lacey has been described as "tough on crime". During her 2020 reelection campaign, that platform was contrasted with the criminal justice reform-minded platforms of her opponents. According to the New York Times, Lacey has "[resisted] efforts to more drastically reduce prison populations."
2012 election
In June 2011, Lacey announced her candidacy for district attorney, hoping to succeed retiring incumbent Steve Cooley. In the June 2012 election, in what was considered a major upset, Lacey and criminal prosecutor Alan Jackson defeated City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who was considered the favorite. Lacey and Jackson advanced to a November 2012 runoff election, which Lacey won with 55% of the vote.
Lacey was sworn in as district attorney on December 3, 2012 by outgoing attorney Steve Cooley, in a ceremony attended by former district attorneys Gil Garcetti, Robert Philibosian, and John Van de Kamp.
Launch of new units and office initiatives
In 2014, Lacey announced an alternative sentencing program aimed at diverting mentally ill, low-level offenders from jail into treatment. Those who complete the treatment and any court-imposed probation will have their pending criminal charges cleared from their records. The program was designed to reduce jail overcrowding and end a revolving door for offenders with mental illness who find themselves incarcerated for relatively minor crimes. In early 2019, Lacey launched the DA's first mental health division - the first for California and possibly United States - which seeks opportunities to expand treatment and other services for mentally ill inmates in the criminal justice system. The new division works with defendants who have been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial or who are seeking alternative sentences due to their mental illnesses. Jackie Lacey founded and serves as chair of the Criminal Justice Mental Health Project for Los Angeles County, leading a multidisciplinary working group devoted to diverting people who are mentally ill out of the criminal justice system for nonviolent offenses. The project secured $150 million in funding from LA County, ensured the opening of urgent care centers as an alternative to jail for certain arrestees, and helped create a new county office of diversion and re-entry.
In 2014, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Lacey launched a campaign against scams targeting the elderly, in which volunteers would go to senior centers, nursing homes and other places seniors gather to give presentations about how to recognize and avoid scams, as well as pass out literature to home-bound seniors. Lacey also instituted the DA's bimonthly Fraud Alerts to educate the public about common fraud schemes targeting seniors, including Medicare rip-offs.
In 2015, Lacey announced the creation of the Conviction Review Unit, dedicated to pursuing the innocence claims of people imprisoned for serious felonies, if new evidence is discovered. When new evidence warrants it, a formal investigation is opened to review details of the case, and the case is presented to the Conviction Review Committee, who will decide whether they doubt the original conviction.
In 2017, Lacey launched the Notario Fraud Unit with the goal of prosecuting those involved in immigration service scams who pose as either attorneys, special agents, or government workers who could expedite the processing of legal documents. Since its inception, the Notario Fraud Unit has prosecuted eight major criminal cases.
Forgiveness of infractions
In April 2019, Lacey announced that Los Angeles County would collaborate with Code for America, a nonprofit tech organization, to identify decades-old court cases to reduce or expunge 50,000 convictions.
Additionally, in response to the homeless population being repeatedly ticketed and arrested for minor infractions, DA Jackie Lacey, City Attorney Mike Feuer, and LAPD Chief Michel Moore agreed to “unclog” the court system of more than 300,000 older warrants and citations. The plan, known as the Fugitive Misdemeanant Recovery Program, allows law enforcement and safety officials to focus on dangerous criminals instead of time on minor infractions involving the homeless.
Capital punishment
Even after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on capital punishment in California, Lacey pursued death penalty cases.
2020 election
In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests for criminal justice reform, Eric Garcetti, the incumbent Mayor of Los Angeles rescinded his prior endorsement of Lacey as Los Angeles County District Attorney, in the lead-up to the 2020 election, where she lost to re-election to George Gascón. Representative Adam Schiff also rescinded his endorsement of Lacey.
Personal life
Lacey lives in the Granada Hills neighborhood with her husband, David Lacey. They have two adult children, Kareem and April. Lacey's husband David defended his house with a gun on March 2, 2020, when in the dead of night when 30 protesters came to their home to demand her resignation and knocked on their door. He was subsequently charged with three counts of assault with a firearm by the California Attorney General's Office but found innocent.
