LA County Public Defender
In October 2018, Ricardo Daniel García was sworn in as Los Angeles County’s first Latino Public Defender.
García received his Juris Doctorate in 1995 from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, and his Bachelor of Art in Politics in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
García started his legal career in 1995 with the San Diego Public Defender’s Office. In 1998, he was recruited to the Alternate Public Defender’s Office as the youngest attorney in that office.
In 2004, García was named Director of Criminal Justice for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. There, he worked on public policy issues in conjunction with city, county and state agencies.
From 2007 to 2009, García supervised the South Bay Branch of the Alternate Public Defender’s Office. In 2008, he was awarded the Dale Melvin Ray Memorial Award for excellence in the representation of the indigent.
In February 2009, García accepted a position with the Multiple Conflicts Office – Major Cases, a unit of highly regarded attorneys, specifically created to handle complex homicide cases and Capital case defendants for the Public Defender. García was a supervisor in that office until 2017.
In 2013, García represented Jorge Rojas, aka El Palillo, in San Diego’s longest and most complicated death penalty trial. After a 15‐month trial, the prosecution was unable to secure guilty verdicts on five of nine homicides and the defense team secured a life verdict for Mr. Rojas. In 2015, García was awarded Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Criminal Defense Association of San Diego.
García has significant expertise and experience with criminal street gang cases throughout San Diego County, and he lectures regularly on the subject. He was a guest lecturer and adjunct professor at California Western School of Law in its Criminal Justice LLM and Acceso programs — work which took him to Mexico, Chile and Peru to educate and train judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. García was also a faculty member at the Bryan R. Shechmeister Death Penalty College at Santa Clara University School of Law.
Under his leadership, the LA County Public Defender’s Office has embraced a digital transformation that leverages AI-powered tools to significantly enhance efficiency and accuracy in document and video analysis. Recognizing the importance of countering the false & negative narratives surrounding justice reform and lifting up the work of public defenders, García established the Department’s first communications team. This initiative has broaden the Department’s outreach both locally—including in ethnic and hyper-local communities—and nationally, enhancing its visibility and impact.
Born in Los Angeles to immigrant parents from Mexico, García is the oldest of seven children. The first‐generation college graduate in his family, García maintains strong ties to his Mexican culture and the Latino community and brings that diversity of experience to both his personal and professional life.
García is a strong and zealous advocate and a great ambassador for the criminal legal system.
