Steve Cooley

Stephen Lawrence Cooley (born May 1, 1947) is an American politician and prosecutor.

In 1970, he was commencement speaker for his graduating class.

He entered the University of Southern California Law School and received his Juris Doctor in 1973.

That same year he joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Cooley served over seven years as a reserve police officer with LAPD and 27 years as prosecutor.

He was the first attorney with trial experience to be elected District Attorney since 1984.

The move mirrored Garcetti's demotion as the chief deputy for the entire county in 1988 by then-incumbent Ira Reiner, which caused Garcetti to challenge his former mentor and defeat him in the 1992 general election.

Cooley upset Garcetti in a competitive three-person primary, taking 39 percent of the vote to Garcetti's 37, forcing the two into a runoff in the November general election.

In the two-person runoff, Cooley defeated Garcetti 64 to 36 percent.

Garcetti and Cooley had a longstanding personal and professional rivalry, going back to at least 1996 when Cooley supported Garcetti's opponent for re-election, John Lynch.

Garcetti defeated Lynch by a margin of approximately 5,000 votes out of slightly more than 2.2 million votes.

After the election, Garcetti demoted Cooley from a supervisory position to the county's obscure Welfare Fraud division.

He was the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2000 to 2012.

Cooley challenged two-term incumbent District Attorney Gil Garcetti in the 2000 election.

At his 2000 swearing-in ceremony, he charged his over 1,000 prosecutors – including more than 300 District Attorney investigators and 600 clerical, technical and support staff – to "show no fear in pursuing the criminal element, but also be fearless in the pursuit of justice."

Cooley instituted a reorganization of the District Attorney's Office.

On April 9, 2003, he announced that he was closing the office's Environmental Crimes unit.

The closure left only one attorney to cover all environmental crimes in Los Angeles County.

The reorganization also included the creation of the Justice System Integrity Division, Forensic Science Section and Victim Impact Program.

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.

Throughout his time as District Attorney, Cooley continued his efforts against the Three Strikes Law in favor of proportionality, including supporting ballot measures that would have altered Three Strikes.

Cooley was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2008.

The blowback from those efforts ultimately led Cooley to leave the California District Attorneys Association in 2006.

As District Attorney, Cooley first made the headlines in the prosecution of Winona Ryder for shoplifting.

Cooley filed four felony charges against her and assigned a team of eight prosecutors and paralegals in what was described by British newspaper The Guardian as a "show-trial."

Cooley was subsequently admonished by the California bar for his actions.

In 2006, Cooley was the most notable law enforcement official to publicly oppose Proposition 83, better known as "Jessica's Law," a measure named after Jessica Lunsford, a 9-year-old who was raped and murdered by a paroled sex offender in Florida.

Cooley criticized Jessica's Law as being "not carefully crafted," adding that "Not liking sex offenders is a good thing and a popular thing, but when you are creating something to deal with them you have to think it through."

California voters passed Proposition 83 with 70.5% of the vote.

During his second term, Cooley's office was unsuccessful in the prosecution of Robert Blake for the murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley.

When interviewed about Robert Blake's acquittal, Cooley publicly called members of the jury who acquitted Blake "incredibly stupid" and refused to apologize for the statement.

According to the Los Angeles Times, advocates for battered women criticized Cooley's handling of Deborah Peagler's case and others like it.

During the general election campaign, Cooley said he would defend Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriages in California but was then being appealed in the federal courts.

In 2010, Cooley won the Republican nomination for California Attorney General against John C. Eastman and Tom Harman in the June 8 primary election.

Cooley lost to the Democratic nominee, 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.

The second of five children, Cooley was born at St. Vincent's Hospital (now St. Vincent's Medical Center) in Los Angeles.

His father was an FBI agent and his mother a homemaker.

Cooley attended Pater Noster High School in Los Angeles.

At California State University, Los Angeles, Cooley served two terms as student body president and was selected for membership in Phi Kappa Phi.

He was also a member of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.