28 Facts About Jackie Lacey

Jacquelyn Phillips Lacey was born on February 27,1957 and is an American politician who served as the District Attorney of Los Angeles County from December 3,2012 to December 7,2020.

Jackie Lacey was the first woman, and first African-American, to serve as LA District Attorney since the office was created in 1850.

Jackie Lacey was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Crenshaw neighborhood.

Jackie Lacey's father, Louis Phillips, was a City of Los Angeles Lot Cleaning employee, and her mother, Addie Phillips, was a garment factory worker.

Jackie 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.

Jackie Lacey joined the District Attorney's Office in 1986 as a deputy district attorney.

Jackie Lacey prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases while serving as a deputy district attorney, including a successful prosecution of the first race-based hate crime murder in Los Angeles County.

Jackie Lacey continued to move up through the ranks, taking on management and executive roles in the office in 2000.

In June 2011, Jackie Lacey announced her candidacy for district attorney, hoping to succeed retiring incumbent Steve Cooley.

Jackie 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.

In 2014, Jackie Lacey announced that she would implement a new program that sought to improve investigations of industrial accidents and environmental crimes to help the District Attorney's Office build a stronger case against potential violations of workplace and environmental safety laws.

In 2014, Jackie Lacey announced an alternative sentencing program aimed at diverting mentally ill, low-level offenders from jail into treatment.

In early 2019, Jackie 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.

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.

In 2014, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Jackie 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.

Jackie Lacey instituted the DA's bimonthly Fraud Alerts to educate the public about common fraud schemes targeting seniors, including counterfeit drug scams and Medicare rip-offs.

In 2015, Jackie 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.

In 2017, Jackie 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.

Gavin Newsom announced a moratorium on capital punishment in California, Jackie Lacey pursued death penalty cases.

In June 2020, amid the George Floyd protests for criminal justice reform, Eric Garcetti, the incumbent Mayor of Los Angeles and Congressman Adam Schiff rescinded their prior endorsement of Jackie Lacey and endorsed her opponent George Gascon in the lead-up to the 2020 Los Angeles County District Attorney election.

Jackie Lacey was heavily criticized for refusing to prosecute Ed Buck, a wealthy Democratic Party donor, following the 2017 drug overdose death of a young Black man named Gemmel Moore in Buck's apartment.

Six months after Jackie Lacey declined to prosecute Ed Buck for Gemmel Moore's death, another Black man, Timothy Dean, was found dead of a drug overdose in Buck's apartment in January 2019.

Activists renewed their calls to Jackie Lacey to prosecute Buck, but again she declined.

Jackie Lacey did not respond to participants' criticism that deputies should not have taken legal advice from a coroner, as Lacey claimed they had.

Jackie Lacey's office has refused to comment publicly on their lack of action on this matter.

Jackie Lacey ultimately won a plurality of votes in the race, given broad financial support from these law enforcement unions, including Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and Los Angeles Police Protective League.

Jackie Lacey lived in the Granada Hills neighborhood with her husband, David Jackie Lacey, until his death in 2022.

Jackie Lacey was charged with three counts of assault with a firearm by the California Attorney General's Office but the charge was dismissed after he completed a diversion program.