1. Stephen Lawrence Cooley was born on May 1,1947 and is an American politician and prosecutor.
26 Facts About Steve Cooley
1. 2.
Steve Cooley was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012.
3.
In 2010, Cooley won the Republican nomination for California Attorney General against John C Eastman and Tom Harman in the June 8 primary election.
4.
Steve Cooley lost to the Democratic nominee, then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, in the November 2 general election, a close race, the results of which were not finalized until November 24,2010.
5.
The second of five children, Steve Cooley was born at St Vincent's Hospital in Los Angeles.
6.
Steve Cooley's father was an FBI agent and his mother a homemaker.
7.
At California State University, Los Angeles, Steve Cooley served two terms as student body president and was selected for membership in Phi Kappa Phi.
8.
Steve Cooley was a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.
9.
Steve Cooley entered the University of Southern California Law School and received his Juris Doctor in 1973.
10.
Steve Cooley served over seven years as a reserve police officer with LAPD and 27 years as prosecutor.
11.
Steve Cooley challenged two-term incumbent District Attorney Gil Garcetti in the 2000 election.
12.
Garcetti and Steve Cooley had a longstanding personal and professional rivalry, going back to at least 1996 when Steve Cooley supported Garcetti's opponent for re-election, John Lynch.
13.
Steve Cooley was the first attorney with trial experience to be elected District Attorney since 1984.
14.
Steve Cooley changed the office's policy on California's Three Strikes Law, with the stated purpose to assure proportionality in sentencing and even-handed application countywide.
15.
The blowback from those efforts ultimately led Steve Cooley to leave the California District Attorneys Association in 2006.
16.
When interviewed about Blake's acquittal, Steve Cooley publicly called members of the jury who acquitted Blake "incredibly stupid" and refused to apologize for the statement.
17.
Steve Cooley initially supported Peagler's release from prison, but then withdrew his written offer to reduce the battered woman's prison sentence.
18.
Rather than seeking indefinite hospitalization for some offenders, as allowed under a November 2006 ballot measure, Steve Cooley only sought two years.
19.
Steve Cooley was heavily criticized for his opposition of Proposition 9.
20.
Steve Cooley was sued in federal court by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.
21.
Steve Cooley waged an illegal anti-union campaign in which he and his staff harassed and unfairly disciplined union officers.
22.
Kerrigan claimed that Steve Cooley had conducted a "deliberate and thinly disguised campaign" aimed at destroying the union.
23.
In 2009, Steve Cooley gained coverage all over the country when, along with federal authorities, he requested that the Swiss government arrest and extradite movie director Roman Polanski, who was traveling to the Zurich Film Festival.
24.
In 2009, Steve Cooley declared his opposition to medicinal marijuana dispensaries that sell over-the-counter in Los Angeles County.
25.
In 2017, Steve Cooley began to defend David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist and founder of the Center for Medical Progress, after Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were indicted on 15 charges for surreptitiously recording several Planned Parenthood executives without their permission and claiming Planned Parenthood was illegally selling body parts from fetuses.
26.
Steve Cooley has been married to Jana, a former court reporter, since 1975.