Governmental integrity and prosecutorial tenacity were the hallmarks of veteran prosecutor Steve Cooley’s first term in office as Los Angeles County District Attorney. He was re-elected to that office in the March 2004 primary election, garnering almost 60 percent of the vote against five opponents. He was sworn in for his second term on Monday, December 6, 2004.

A former reserve Los Angeles Police officer, Cooley has reshaped and revitalized the District Attorney’s Office with the most sweeping reorganization that has occurred in the last 40 years.

Among the achievements of Steve Cooley’s first four years in office were his crackdown on corrupt politicians, his enforcement of the open meeting law – the Brown Act, and his protocols for referring allegations of law enforcement criminality directly to the D.A.’s new Justice System Integrity Division.

The Justice System Integrity Division, which Cooley created, has also filed an unprecedented 24 cases against corrupt attorneys and achieved a 100 percent conviction rate.

Cooley’s emphasis on the prosecution of unsolved “cold cases” has resulted in head-line making courtroom victories, most notably the conviction of a man for the killing of two El Segundo police officers 47 years ago.

The 2001 conviction of Symbionese Liberation Army “soldier” Kathleen Soliah (Sara Jane Olson) for the attempted bombings in 1975 of LAPD police cars is another example of Cooley’s tenacity. The L.A. conviction led to the conviction of Soliah and other SLA members in Sacramento for a murder that took place during a bank robbery, also in 1975.

Conscious of the need to prevent crime, Cooley has promoted a number of crime prevention programs. The newest is a Protecting Our Kids program which gives parents the tools to protect their children from predators who prowl the Worldwide Web and enter homes through the Internet.

Cooley has received recognition from a verity of diverse organizations: Justice for Homicide Victims (Crime Victims Star of the Year), National Black Prosecutors Association (Champion of the People), Irish American Bar Association (Daniel O’Connell Award), California NAACP (Community Justice Award), and Century City Bar Association (Prosecutor of the Year 2001).

Cooley graduated from the USC Law Center in 1973 and joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office the same year. He and his wife Jana have lived in Toluca Lake for over 30 years. They have two grown children.