I am a 1995 graduate from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo as a Political Science major. I received my law degree from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. My career began as a Deputy District Attorney for Santa Clara County. I then spent nearly 6 years as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of San Diego handling crimes involving domestic violence, child abuse, child molest, and Internet Crimes Against Children, and was recognized by the City of San Diego as Prosecutor of the Year in 2003.
For the past 19 years, I have served as a Deputy District Attorney for the County of San Diego. The majority of these years have been spent fighting for justice in cases involving vulnerable victims: sexual assault, stalking, child abuse, child molest, and Human Trafficking. I have frequently presented and trained for numerous organizations, including CDAA, NDAA, law enforcement, universities, community groups, and victim advocacy centers. In 2018, I had the tremendous opportunity to teach at a Human Trafficking workshop for magistrates, law enforcement, and prosecutors in Blantyre, Malawi, which will always be one of the highlights of my career. I served as Co-Chair of our San Diego County Sexual Assault Response Team, a multi-disciplinary committee which helps establish standards for the handling of sex crimes cases throughout San Diego County. I researched, authored, and lobbied for multiple criminal justice state legislative bills to help expand protections for crime victims. That process included testifying as a subject matter expert in front of our California State Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees in Sacramento to help ensure their passage. Three of those bills were signed into law.
My most recent specializations as a Deputy District Attorney include over 2 years handling highly sensitive cases in our Special Operations Division. These matters involved threats against public officials, law enforcement misconduct, and the detailed review of officer involved shootings and in-custody deaths. The past 4 years I have been the Auto Team Leader for our Insurance Fraud and Workplace Justice Division, where we work closely with law enforcement, the California Department of Insurance, and SIUs to investigate and prosecute cases involving fraudulent claims, arson, staged collisions, hit and runs, complex fraud rings, and economic auto theft.