Los Angeles County Superior CourtCandidate for Judge, Seat 67

Elizabeth was raised in a diverse suburb of Cleveland, Ohio in a family that believed firmly that all human beings are created equally.  At a young age she quickly recognized that injustice and inequality are unacceptable and that it was her duty to be a part of the solution.  She attended Syracuse University and Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the day after graduation in 2002 she and her husband drove a van to Los Angeles where she began working for Los Angeles County Office of Public Defender.  During the summer of law school, she had the honor of serving as a Law Clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in New York and then as a Legal Intern at the Human Rights Watch in New York City.  

Elizabeth and her husband are both public school educated and current union members, and their two children attend local public schools.  Being in a multi-racial family with a child who identifies at LGBTQ has given her the unique perspective of the challenges that marginalized people face while comparing that to the privileges and opportunities she inherently has. 

In the Public Defender’s office, she has tried many cases of all levels and complexities, worked as a juvenile resource attorney advocating for children with special needs, and currently litigates claims of racial injustice as part of the Racial Justice Unit.  Elizabeth has also co-founded and is the President of the Women Defender Association. 

Elizabeth’s leadership and community service is long-standing and broad based.  If anyone needs a hand and asks her to assist it is hard for her to say no.  She creates small local service projects such as a hot lunch program for Learning Works Charter school during the pandemic and organizing hundreds of holiday gifts for unaccompanied minors in Southern California.  She serves on the governing board of her inclusive church, various board positions at her children’s schools, and she is on the Defender Council of National Legal Aid & Defenders Association.  Her family often makes hygiene packs for unhoused neighbors, cooks extra turkeys during the holiday and makes Easter baskets for foster children.  Elizabeth wants to instill in her children that they are part of the human family and as such it is their duty to give back. 

Elizabeth is driven by the deep desire to leave the world a better place.  She has seen the injustice of the legal system first-hand and wants to work to bring equality, dignity and compassion to the judicial bench. 

Elizabeth has been a lifelong advocate for the less fortunate in our society.  She has dedicated her professional and personal life to marginalized people in underserved communities. Her political philosophy has emerged from that background and is highly consistent with the California Democratic Party.  While Elizabeth’s political philosophy includes protecting our environment, advocating for universal health care, reducing income inequality, the right of a woman to choose her own future, the right to death with dignity, the right to equal access for those with disabilities. et. al., these things are not particularly relevant to the position she is seeking.

Elizabeth is committed to public safety first and foremost, while supporting a criminal justice system that provides fair and equitable treatment for all.  Crime prevention and rehabilitation must focus on proven, evidence-based programs and investment in proven alternatives to incarceration. She is committed to eliminating racial and economic disparities within the criminal justice system and to ending the failed system of mass incarceration in California prisons and jails.

 After years of policies informed by tough-on-crime rhetoric that resulted in skyrocketing levels of incarceration and poor outcomes for neighborhoods of color, families, and communities, the country has an urgent need to better orient the justice system. Los Angeles is the epicenter of mass incarceration in the United States, and that has had a disproportionate impact on communities of color. Elizabeth is advocating a common sense, practical approach to criminal justice reform that is driven by re-imagining public safety and making fiscally smart decisions.

Elizabeth’s 20 years as a public defender has given her a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses in our criminal justice system and has a strong conviction that unnecessary confinement has been ineffective in reducing public safety in Los Angeles County and elsewhere.  Some people believe that public defenders will be soft on crime as a judge.  The reality is public defenders are hard on justice, knowing that the majority of the people that come through the criminal justice system are struggling to overcome barriers in life such as addiction, mental health challenges, homelessness, poverty, or joblessness.  Rather than invest in programs that seeks to redress these issues we too often choose to simply warehouse them at a great cost to the individual and our community. The larger society benefits, and we all would be safer if the true root causes of crime are addressed instead of the symptoms. In essence she opposes using prisons and jails as de facto mental health facilities and she will fight to adequately fund community mental health and substance abuse programs;

Criminal justice reform must incorporate every aspect of the criminal justice system, including what we choose to criminalize, the practices and behavior of law enforcement professionals, charging, sentencing, and bail, treatment of those incarcerated, diversion and rehabilitation, and reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals into society. Elizabeth believes strongly in fairness for the accused and rehabilitation of offenders is critical to reforming the system. She supports the implementation of restorative justice practices within law enforcement agencies and schools that brings together those who have committed crimes with victims and community members in an effort to recognize and repair the damage caused by criminal activity through accountability and rehabilitation. She also supports effective, quality drug treatment programs that are easily accessible for every person with an alcohol or substance abuse disorder.

Elizabeth’s political philosophy is focused on protecting the public by addressing the origins of crime. She supports investment in proven strategies to prevent crime, including providing structured preschool and afterschool programs for youth, as well as programs and policies to promote school retention and graduation to effectively end the school-to-prison pipeline. She also supports implementing community policing strategies where the officers and the community work together as partners.  Elizabeth is a supporter of victim-witness advocacy that provides therapeutic assistance, financial compensation, and support for comprehensive services for victims of crime.

Elizabeth supports fair and just laws and equitable enforcement that opposes criminalization of persons who commit low-level offenses due to homelessness or mental illness by directing them to public health and housing services, rather than resorting to arrest. She also supports equal enforcement of laws and policies that protect both women and men from sexual assault and rape.

Regarding juvenile justice, Elizabeth opposes youths being held in adult prisons and jails and the practice of trying juveniles as adults, supports youth parole by providing review for all sentences committed before the age of 23, including sentences of Life, Life Without the Possibility of Parole, and determinate sentences. She supports increased oversight of juvenile justice agencies and implementation of trauma-responsive justice systems grounded in adolescent development to yield better outcomes for youth and reduce racial and socioeconomic inequalities.

Elizabeth will fight to defend and promote the rights, opportunities, and safety of all people of Los Angeles County, especially the most vulnerable.  She envisions a county that leads the world as a model criminal justice reform rooted in fairness and justice in all our diverse communities; one in which the minority, the poor and the disadvantaged get the same treatment as the wealthy, the privileged, the powerful, and the politically connected. She is intimately familiar with effective alternatives to incarceration and programs to re-integrate people back into their communities that truly improve public safety.  She wants to help ensure that all voices are heard and reform movement changemakers have the tools and resources needed to succeed.

Having judges with diverse qualifications and experiences like Elizabeth’s will introduce new perspectives changing the perception of the court and giving people an assurance that their voices are heard in the system. If she were elected, she would treat everyone equally, with dignity and compassion. Elizabeth’s political philosophy defends and promotes the values that support all people’s hopes and dreams for a vibrant future, founded in an affirmative understanding of the intersectional nature of social and economic equity.