Deputy District Attorney Named Prosecutor of the Year

Deputy District Attorney
Named Prosecutor of the Year

May 5, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
(213) 974-3525

LOS ANGELES – A 20-year trial lawyer of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will be presented the Prosecutor of the Year award later this week.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace Jr. of Major Crimes Division will be honored on Thursday, May 8, at an awards dinner hosted by the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section. The awards ceremony will take place at the Biltmore Hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave., in Los Angeles.

“[Robert] is an outstanding prosecutor,” Patrick Dixon, Head Deputy District Attorney of Major Crimes, said. “He is very dedicated. He has no ego at all. He is always happy to work with anyone no matter what his role. I just can’t say enough about his virtues as a team player and a go-to guy.”

Past recipients include Dixon, Compton Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter, District Attorney Steve Cooley and Head Deputy District Attorney David Demerjian of Public Integrity Division. The award recognizes professionalism, ethics, prosecution of high-profile cases, career accomplishments and community service. Candidates derive from various prosecutorial agencies in Los Angles County, including the federal, state, county and city agencies.

The Los Angeles County Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section also will recognize the Honorable James R. Brandlin of Los Angeles Superior Court, recipient of the Judge of the Year award, the Honorable Robert M. Takasugi, senior judge of United States District Court, Central District of California, recipient of the Career Achievement Award, and Head Deputy Public Defender Stuart Glovin of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, Airport Branch, recipient of the Defense Attorney of the Year award.

Grace is known for trying complex, high-profile cases. Just last month, for instance, Grace and Deputy District Attorney Truc Do secured convictions against Helen Louise Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, who befriended homeless men and then murdered them to collect $2.8 million in life insurance.

Similarly, in 2007, Grace and Do were assigned to prosecute Chester Turner, a Los Angeles man accused of raping and strangling 10 women in the late 1980s and early 1990s. DNA evidence linked Turner to the murders after he raped a woman in 2002. After being convicted of that rape, the defendant’s DNA was submitted to the California state DNA bank and matched to 10 unsolved murders.
Ultimately, Turner was convicted of eleven counts of murder with special circumstances and a jury returned a verdict of death.
Over the course of his career, Grace has tried more than 50 murder cases and some 20 special circumstance murder cases. Grace, who has been assigned to Hardcore Gang Division, Family Violence Division and, most recently, Major Crimes Division, earned his bachelor of arts degree in political science from UCLA and his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles.

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Editors – Photo of Grace available by calling Shiara M. Dávila at (213) 974-7279.

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