Travis County District Attorney-elect José Garza has announced his transition team — a combination of activists and experienced attorneys, many of whom have worked extensively to reform the criminal justice system.
Garza on Wednesday publicly announced that Austin-based criminal justice reform expert Trudy Strassburger would be his first assistant district attorney when he takes office in January.
Strassburger, managing director of national reform advocacy organization The Justice Collaborative, was previously deputy director of the Capital Area Private Defender Service, which represents Austinites charged with crimes when they can’t afford attorneys.
Additionally, Garza has accepted a director position under Margaret Moore, so he will join the DA’s office on Dec. 1, a month earlier than expected.
These people will make up Garza’s transition team:
• Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, who will chair the team
• Gretta Gordy Gardner, deputy director of the Washington-based National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community and a former sexual assault prosecutor in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office
• Randi Chavez, director of mitigation at the Texas Defender Service
• Anita Gupta, Austin staff attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center
• Dana Mulhauser, founding chief of the conviction and incident review unit at the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and a former prosecutor with the civil rights division of the Department of Justice
• Ranjana Natarajan, director of the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law and a former attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union
• Jackie Wood, a defense lawyer in Travis County and a former Travis County assistant district attorney
• Darwin Hamilton, co-chair of the board of Austin-based activist organization Grassroots Leadership and serves on the executive committee of the Austin/Travis County Re-entry Roundtable, which seeks to address challenges for ex-convicts who have been released from prison
Garza said any new district attorney will likely have a group of people guiding and advising a transition, but “it’s important to me that we be transparent about who we’re talking to,” he said. “I think the community deserves to know.”
Garza said he’s proud of the team he put together.
“I am excited to include people with prosecutor and defense experience, people with strong ties to the local community, and people who have fought for decades to protect the rights of the most vulnerable in our community,” Garza said. “Along with the team, First Assistant Trudy Strassburger will bring her experience implementing criminal justice reform policy both here in Austin and nationwide. I know that with their help, we can reimagine our criminal justice system here in Travis County, starting on day one.”
This is a developing story; check back for more details.
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