Rod Pacheco

After Pacheco left the Riverside County District Attorneys Office and went into private practice and was awarded the highest rating for lawyers: AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, an independent lawyer evaluation organization. Pacheco has also been selected as a California Super Lawyer for every year since he has been in private practice. Pacheco's current practice areas include: fraud and enforcement issues, commercial and public law litigation, internal investigations, and white collar defense at Theodora Oringher, which he joined in November 2014.

Pacheco sought greater protections for the men and women of law enforcement. During his first term in office, he authored the successful Proposition 222 – "The Peace Officer's Safety Initiative" – which prohibited the possibility of parole for the murder of a peace officer. Proposition 222 garnered nearly 80% of California voters' support on the June 1998 ballot.

Beginning in December 2009, there were numerous attempts to kill gang task force law enforcement officers in the city of Hemet. On July 7, 2010, Pacheco announced the filing of charges against two men involved in those attacks. Nicholas John Smit, 39, of Hemet was charged with nine counts while co-conspirator Steven William Hansen, 36, of Homeland was charged with three counts involving attempted murder of a peace officer.

On May 3, 2010, Pacheco, along with then Attorney General Jerry Brown and 18 other California District Attorneys announced they had reached a $27.6 million settlement with Wal-mart Stores Inc. for various violations of environmental laws and regulations.

On October 25, 2010, the Supreme Court of California directly repudiated some of Pacheco's more controversial positions in a unanimous decision signed by Chief Justice Ronald M. George. In the court's words: "Notwithstanding the considerable preference that the Riverside Superior Court generally afforded the trial of criminal cases over civil cases, the District Attorney of Riverside County consistently has taken the position that a California statutory provision required the Riverside court to extend its efforts even further and make every superior court judge and courtroom – including the specialized superior court departments devoted to hearing and resolving family law, probate, and juvenile matters (as well as the judges from outside the county who had been assigned to that court specifically to assist with the backlog of long-delayed civil trials) – potentially available for the trial of any criminal case that was facing dismissal under the applicable California speedy-trial statutes." The court held that Pacheco's position was meritless. The court then also held that the failure of the state legislature to provide enough judges to Riverside County constituted good cause for dismissing severely delayed criminal cases under the relevant state statute implementing the constitutional right to a speedy trial.

Pacheco was defeated on June 8, 2010, in his bid for reelection as District Attorney by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Paul Zellerbach. After the election, Pacheco said in a statement to the Press Enterprise, "It has been my honor to serve the citizens of Riverside County in a variety of capacities for many years. I look forward to my entrance into private life."

The third and fourth gang injunctions were announced in accordance with Operation Falling Sun on March 27, 2009 in the city of Desert Hot Springs against the True Crime Boys and West Drive Locos criminal street gangs.

Pacheco launched an 8-month investigation that resulted in 700 police officers from 35 different law enforcement agencies conducting the largest gang suppression operation in the history of Riverside County on March 27, 2009. The operation was conducted in conjunction with the service of two gang injunction lawsuits against two of the most violent Desert Hot Springs criminal street gangs.

Pacheco announced a second gang injunction against the Barrio Dream Homes criminal street gang in Cathedral City, CA on June 12, 2008.

On June 16, 2008, Pacheco along with the Attorney General obtained an indictment on four people on a combined 11 felony and 26 misdemeanor counts for their roles in a money-laundering conspiracy involving six different political campaigns for state office. The defendants were Mark Leggio, Nicola Cacucciolo, Nick Vito Cacucciolo and James Lloyd Deremiah. The charges stemmed from illegal monetary contributions made by the defendants to at least six different political campaigns for state office. The timing and pattern of these contributions demonstrated that defendant Leggio had reimbursed employees and friends for making those political contributions.

On July 10, 2008, Pacheco filed legal action seeking an injunction against TravelCenters of America for violating the laws governing the management and handling of underground storage tanks of hazardous materials.

On December 12, 2008, Pacheco testified in the lawsuit against the early release of prisoners in the San Francisco federal court. In his testimony, Pacheco offered evidence that the early release of prisoners would jeopardize public safety and further harm our fragile local criminal justice system. United States Code section 3626 requires the court to give substantial weight to any adverse effect on public safety or the operation of the criminal justice system caused by the early release of state prisoners.

Pacheco issued the first ever gang injunction in Riverside County history in August 2007 against the largest Riverside County criminal street gang, East Side Riva. In response, an East Side Riva gang member who was an employee of the Press-Enterprise newspaper threatened to kill Pacheco. The newspaper employee took out a classified advertisement in the Press-Enterprise newspaper with the threat, and Pacheco's personal address and cellular phone number, which was obtained through the Pacheco's newspaper subscription records. The employee, Chandler W. Cardwell, was prosecuted by the California Attorney General and convicted of threatening a public official.

In August 2007, Pacheco gathered support from 19 other elected District Attorneys in California and filed a motion in federal court seeking to prevent the early release of 56,000 criminals from California State Prisons on behalf of the citizens of Riverside County. Pacheco dedicated Riverside County Assistant District Attorney Bill Mitchell to be lead counsel in the lawsuit to represent himself and the elected District Attorneys from San Diego, Santa Barbara, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Placer, Colusa, Amador, Contra Costa, Solano, Tehama, Butte, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, El Dorado, Nevada, Kings and Tuolumne Counties.

On September 18, 2007, Pacheco was named one of California's Top 100 Lawyers by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals. It was The Daily Journal Corporation's tenth anniversary honoring California's most influential lawyers. During his legal career, Pacheco has tried well over 100 cases to verdict and has not lost a trial since 1986, shortly after he became an attorney in 1983.

In 2006, Pacheco was elected the Riverside County District Attorney without any opposition. He was sworn in as District Attorney on the steps of Riverside County's Historic Courthouse by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George. Speaking at Pacheco's inauguration were former California Governor Pete Wilson and renowned attorney Tino Garza. Pacheco in his remarks promised that he would continue the tradition set by his predecessor, Grover Trask, of having a highly professional office of attorneys that aggressively prosecute crime. Pacheco also stated that he would concentrate on four important areas as the District Attorney: gangs, crime victim rights, public integrity, and environmental justice.

Pacheco is credited with developing and pushing a plan to create a gang task force designated to cover all of Riverside County. After gathering a coalition of law enforcement officials, Riverside County developed a countywide regional strategy for combating the increased gang activity occurring in Riverside County communities. The Riverside County Gang Task Force (GTF) was created in late 2006 and fully staffed with roughly 70 sworn law enforcement officers from 22 different law enforcement agencies by early 2007. The GTF strategy is to combine resources from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to create eight (8) separate gang task force units across the county. The strategy involves a three-prong approach involving prevention, intervention and suppression.

Pacheco is credited with coming up with the idea for the Riverside County Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) task force. The team was created in November 2006. When the team was created, it was estimated that 25% of all registered sex offenders were out of compliance with the terms of their registration under California penal code 290. As of May 2010, the non-compliance rate for sex offenders was at 3%.

In 2002, Pacheco concluded his legislative service and returned to the Riverside County District Attorney's Office as a Chief Deputy District Attorney. In 2003, he was promoted to Assistant District Attorney for the Western Division.

In 2000, Pacheco formed a bipartisan legislative coalition aimed at reforming the Cal Grant system to ensure that all eligible students would be provided the resources they need to attend college. The legislation passed both houses of the State Legislature and was signed into law. John Mockler, then California Secretary of Child Development, hailed its passage as "…the most significant educational reform since the G.I. bill." Pacheco was honored by the California State University Students Association as their "Legislator of the Year" for this achievement.

Pacheco ran for the California State Assembly in 1996. With his victory, he became the first Latino Republican elected in more than a century. He was elected Leader of the Republican caucus, marking the first time in the state's history that a Latino has served in that capacity.

Pacheco began working for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office in 1984. In his last 10 years at the office prior to being elected to the Assembly, Pacheco won every single case that he tried which included 5 death penalty cases. His skill as a prosecutor was acknowledged his first year in the office when he was named "Prosecutor of the Year" in the Juvenile Crime Division. In 1987 Pacheo received the "Outstanding Achievement Award" and in 1994 he received the "Special Achievement Award" for his work in the District Attorney's Criminal Division.

In 1976 Pacheco graduated from Aquinas High School in San Bernardino, California. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Sociology from the University of California, Riverside in 1980. He received his law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1983.

Rodric Anthony Pacheco (born May 7, 1958), usually known as Rod Pacheco, is an American politician. He served in the Riverside County District Attorney's Office as a Deputy District Attorney, Chief Deputy District Attorney, Assistant District Attorney and then as District Attorney from 2007–2010 in Riverside County, California. He served in the California State Assembly from 1996–2002. He served as Republican leader from November 5, 1998 – April 6, 1999. Pacheco was defeated on June 8, 2010, in his bid for a second term as Riverside County District Attorney. In January 2011, SNR Denton, a global law firm, announced Pacheco would join the firm and serve in its Los Angeles office. Pacheco became a Partner in Litigation, White Collar, and Public Policy Public Strategies Practice Groups at SNR Denton in January 2011. Pacheco left SNR Denton in October 2014 to join Theodora Oringher PC. Pacheco was recruited by Theodora Oringher PC to form and lead the White Collar/Internal Investigations Practice Group for the firm.