Pat Lenzi

Pat Lenzi ran for District Attorney in the June 2006 Primary Election and lost to Jeff Reisig (46.06% to 53.94%).

WHY I AM A CANDIDATE

My mother is a Mohawk Indian, raised in an orphanage; my late father a disabled veteran of the Second World War. I am one of seven children and a member of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe.

My early years were spent in the inner city of Rochester, NY; later I lived in a tiny farming community. In my life I have come to appreciate the value of government programs that support families in need, and at times we relied on the generosity of the nuns for help.

I left community college when I was 20 and had a ten-year career in restaurant management. When our small family later moved to San Antonio, I worked my way through college while raising my children. I attended the University of Texas and earned a B.A. degree in Criminal Justice.

I received my law degree from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall in 1992. By early 1994 I was working as a prosecuting attorney for the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office. In 2001 I began working in the Yolo County DA’s Office where we had been living since 1995 while raising our teenage children. I seek justice for children who have been victimized: I prosecute child molesters.

Over the years, my workload has included more than 70 jury trials. Because of the sheer size of prosecution caseloads, I have managed the sentencing of literally thousands of criminals.

My primary concern has always been with what can be done for people who have been harmed by criminal activity. The victims I work with in court and in the community know that they can call me 24 hours a day – and they do! Some of them have become personal friends: I am pleased to count Marc Klaas among those.

For the past ten years I have been sitting on the advisory board of Crime Victims United of California; I am an active member of the group Davis military families as a Marine Corps Mom; and I have recently been invited to serve on the Yolo County advisory board for the Salvation Army.

I am active in the Yolo County community. I think that the District Attorney is an elected position for a reason: law enforcement is the concern of our entire community, and the District Attorney is the official who directly brings the interests and concerns of the people in Yolo County’s communities into the criminal justice system.

The DA should not just be another law enforcement official setting the agenda for the community: the community—through the District Attorney—should set the agenda for our criminal justice system.

The people of Yolo County have a range of law enforcement concerns within their different communities: some are worried about gangs and hate crimes; some about police performance or environmental issues; some about consumer scams such as identity theft and cyber crime; and some are concerned about the treatment of drug offenders and those with serious mental health problems who commit crimes.

The District Attorney should be an active participant in community discussions on law enforcement issues and should play a leadership role in their resolution. I will be that District Attorney.