Jackie Lacey becomes L.A.’s first Black, female district attorney
Steve Cooley’s administers oath of office
Standing before a crowd of family, friends, co-workers and former district attorneys, Jackie Lacey was sworn in as Los Angeles County’s first female and first Black district attorney this week.
Outgoing District Attorney Steve Cooley administered the oath of office and former District Attorney John Van de Kamp presented Lacey with her badge at the USC’s Galen Center.
Cooley told her, “You are the leader of the unarguably largest prosecutorial office in the country.”
Gil Garcetti and Robert Philibosian, two of the three other living former district attorneys, also joined the presentation.
Wearing a purple suit and joined by her family, Lacey said, “It hardly seems real, and I praise God for the journey as well as the victory.”
She noted that her birthday, Feb. 27, coincides with the day the district attorney’s office opened in 1850.
“I just don’t believe in coincidences,” she said. “I believe we all have a date with destiny.”
She told the crowd she would weigh in on issues without regard to politics or partisanship, while “never, ever, ever forgetting that I work for you.”
Lee Smalley Edmon, the first female presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, gave the commendation.
Lacey grew up in the Crenshaw District. She graduated from Dorsey High School and UC Irvine and holds a degree from the USC Law Center. She joined the district attorney’s office in 1986 and worked her way up through the ranks from front-line prosecutor to Cooley’s second-in-command.
She was elected to a four-year term with about 55 percent of the vote in a Nov. 6 race against Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson. During the campaign, Lacey emphasized her management skills as critical to running the largest local prosecutorial office in the nation, with nearly 1,000 attorneys, 300 peace officers and 800 support staff members.
The third time is the charm for Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who Tuesday was elected to represent the 59th Assembly District.
After dropping out of the Los Angeles City Council 10th District race in 2002 and barely losing out to Holly Mitchell in the contest for the 47th Assembly District in 2010, Jones-Sawyer will now join Mitchell in Sacramento. She was re-elected to the Assembly by defeating Keith Mc Cowen 83.4 to 16.6 percent.
COMPTON, Calif. — Former Compton Fire Department Deputy Chief Marcel Melanson is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on grand theft and arson charges related to a fire at the department’s headquarters.
Melanson is suspected of stealing thousands of dollars worth of Motorola radios, selling them online and intentionally setting the Dec. 11, 2011 fire to destroy evidence of the thefts, Steve Whitmore of the sheriff’s department said.
LANCASTER, Calif. — A registered sex offender accused of using a cellphone camera to capture video up hundreds of women’s skirts in Lancaster and elsewhere in Los Angeles County was in custody and facing prosecution, authorities said.
People often describe me as troubled. I’m not going to say that I’m not. But I’m not crazy. I have troubles. A lot of us do. But you need to understand where I’m coming from and why I am the way I am. Considering what I’ve been through, it’s a miracle that I’ve been able to hold it together. I’m just trying to find my way. [I’ve read newspaper stories about me that] say, “Experts testify [that boy] is psychotic.” The way they describe me is wrong—bi-polar, depression, pyro, whatever. I know I’m not at all.
Public affairs expert and human rights advocate Lamell McMorris has been appointed chairman of the National Diversity Advisory Council of the American Red Cross.
McMorris is the founder and CEO of Perennial, a Washington, D.C.-based family of businesses.
He will fulfill a one-year term beginning immediately. “I am excited and humbled by the trust and confidence that Chairman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and the board of governors have placed in me,” said McMorris.
