Gil Garcetti

Gil Garcetti
40th District Attorney of Los Angeles County
In office 1992–2000
Preceded by	Ira Reiner
Succeeded by	Steve Cooley
Personal details
Born	August 5, 1941 (1941-08-05) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles University of Southern California

Gilbert Salvadore Iberri "Gil" Garcetti (born August 5, 1941) is an American politician. He served as Los Angeles County's 40th District Attorney for two terms, from 1992 until November 7, 2000.

Background

Gil Garcetti received a bachelor's degree in Management from the University of Southern California and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Before becoming District Attorney, Garcetti served within the office for over twenty years, from trial prosecutor to managerial positions and eventually becoming chief deputy district attorney for his predecessor, Ira Reiner (District Attorney from 1984 – 1992). Reiner decided not to run for a third term, and Garcetti won the 1992 election.

Life as District Attorney

First term

Entering the 1992 elections, LA County was still recovering from the aftermath of the highly publicized 1991 Rodney King beating at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the massive unrest of the 1992 LA Riots.

Garcetti's first term was dominated by his office's prosecution of the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. The long, costly criminal trial ended with a "not guilty" verdict on October 3, 1995. Despite the setback, Garcetti was able to win re-election in 1996, narrowly defeating challenger John Lynch.

Second term

Garcetti focused both his terms working to solve a number of issues including domestic violence, hate crimes, welfare fraud and combating LA's street gangs.

In the late 1990s, Garcetti's use of default judgments in child support cases were considered by many to be particularly heinous. Garcetti openly refused to rescind judgments against men who later proved through DNA evidence that they were not the fathers in question. By 2000, 79% of paternity judgements in Los Angeles County were assigned by default.

However, it was the fight against gangs that became his undoing in late-1999, when the LAPD's Rampart CRASH Scandal erupted with allegations of extreme police misconduct from the city's Rampart Division. Garcetti was drawn into a public dispute with LAPD Chief Bernard Parks over access to records on the charged officers.

The resulting squabbling and negative press reminded citizens of LA County of the troubles associated with the Rodney King riots, and the resulting sentiment led to Garcetti's defeat in the 2000 election. He was succeeded by one of his deputies, Steve Cooley, who was serving as head of the city's Welfare Fraud Division, a division created by Garcetti.

Current activities

Politics

The 2000 election ended Garcetti's 32-year career with the LA County District Attorney's office. In 2002, Los Angeles City Council President Alex Padilla appointed Garcetti to the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission for a five-year term. In the fall of 2002, Garcetti was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has been developing a foundation to help Latino and African-American students complete their high school education.

Photography

Garcetti has always been an avid urban photographer. During his time as District Attorney he would carry a small camera with him at all times. After leaving the DA's office, Garcetti focused on art photography, initially producing two collections on the Walt Disney Concert Hall: Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Balcony Press 2002) Balcony Press, focusing on the ironworkers who constructed the landmark, and Frozen Music (Balcony Press 2003), focusing on the finished building itself. Photos from these works were featured in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. His most recent exhibition, Dance in Cuba: Photographs by Gil Garcetti(Balcony Press 2005) Balcony Press, was featured at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Spring 2006. "Water is Key: A Better Future for Africa" (Balcony Press 2007)Balcony Press was published via a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation http://www.hiltonfoundation.org to the Pacific Institute as a benefit to NGOs supporting clean water projects in Africa.

The Closer

Garcetti has served as a consulting producer on the TNT series The Closer since its debut in 2005. Executive producer James Duff credits Garcetti with asking questions and bringing to light the issues that both lend accuracy to each episode and result in more powerful episode endings.

Family

His son, Eric Garcetti, was elected to the LA City Council in 2001, re-elected in 2005 and 2009 and is currently serving as Council President.

Quotes

• "It's like if you have a quilt and a thread is loose and they see that thread, they say, 'Forget the rest of the quilt. ... It's not guilty,'" --On the OJ Simpson verdict
• "If you cannot have faith and trust in your police officer– either as a citizen or as a juror or as a judge, as defense lawyers, as a district attorney– then we do not have an acceptable, a viable criminal justice system"

See also

• Garcetti v. Ceballos

References

• Robert Greene, Former District Attorney Gil Garcetti Nominated to City Ethics Commission, Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Aug. 15, 2002, Accessed on May 19, 2006
• Benjamin Parke, D.A. Gil Garcetti criticized for Belmont school failure, Rampart scandal , Daily Bruin, Feb. 10, 2000, Accessed on May 19, 2006
• Scott Simon, The Legacy of the O.J. Simpson Case, Weekend Edition (NPR), June 12, 2004, Accessed on May 19, 2006
• Scott Simon, Garcetti Photos Capture Disney Hall, Ironworkers, Weekend Edition (NPR), Sept. 11, 2004, Accessed on May 19, 2006

• [1]

External links

• L.A. County District Attorney profile
• [2]

Legal offices
Preceded by Ira Reiner	Los Angeles County District Attorney 1992 – 2000	Succeeded by Steve Cooley