For release on January 16, 2015
CONTACT:
Sean Webby
Public Communications Officer
(408) 792-2997
Marking his Office’s continued path toward reforms and ethical justice, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen will be sworn in for his second term in Office and give an inaugural speech at a ceremony at noon, Tuesday, January 20, 2015. The public event will be held at the County Board of Supervisors Chambers at 70 W. Hedding St. in San Jose.
County Supervisor Cindy Chavez will emcee the event and County Board President Dave Cortese will make opening remarks. The District Attorney will be introduced by newly-elected San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a former prosecutor.
The National Anthem will be performed by Katie Brown, the daughter of a DA Investigator and the former head of the Office’s Sexual Assault Unit. The Pledge of Allegiance will be performed by the District Attorney’s daughters, Rachel and Naomi Rosen. There will be an invocation by Rabbi David Booth, followed by the Oath of Office administered by the Superior Court Judge Sharon Chatman.
A copy of the District Attorney’s speech will be available to members of the media.
District Attorney Rosen oversees the largest prosecutor's office north of Los Angeles, serving a population of about 1.8 million. The District Attorney's Office has 537 employees, including 180 deputy district attorneys. The Office prosecutes approximately 40,000 cases each year.
In his last remaining case before taking Office in 2011, veteran prosecutor Rosen obtained first-degree murder convictions and life sentences against the defendants whose murder-for-hire scheme resulted in the slaying of Los Gatos businessman Mark Achilli.
Since then, Rosen has instituted many nationally-recognized reforms: establishing one of the first Conviction Integrity Units in the country; re-establishing a Cold Case Unit; expanding the Community Prosecutor Unit; instituting “open file discovery” to make sure vital evidence is provided to defense attorneys; creating a “collateral consequences” policy that allows prosecutors to do justice for defendants facing immigration issues as a result of being convicted; successfully supporting Proposition 36 to reform California Three Strikes' Law in 2012 and Proposition 47 in this past election that reduces some low level felony crimes to misdemeanors. Rosen has eschewed using grand juries to judge the legality of Officer-Involved Shootings, instead reviewing the cases in-house and releasing comprehensive and public reports on the Office’s charging decisions.