Summer Stephan is the District Attorney for the County of San Diego, serving in this capacity since 2017.
Summer Stephan was initially appointed to the position of District Attorney in 2017, to finish the term of resigning DA . Summer Stephan defeated challenger San Diego County Public Defender Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a Democrat, in the 2018 general election, with 63.7 percent of the vote. She is the second female district attorney for San Diego.
Early life
Summer received her
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree from the
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...
and her
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from the
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law
University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law is a private, American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law school in the Oak Park neighborhood of the city of Sacramento, California. It is part of the University of the Pacific and is located on t ...
.
Career
Stephen served as a Deputy District Attorney in San Diego County for 28 years, trying more than 100 jury cases. Stephan served as Chief of the District Attorney’s North County Branch as well as Chief of the
Sex Crimes and
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...
Division. From 2012-2017, she served as Chief Deputy District Attorney under her predecessor,
Bonnie Dumanis
Bonnie Michelle Dumanis (born December 16, 1951) was the District Attorney of San Diego County, California. She held the office 2003 to 2017. Dumanis is a Republican, though the office she held was officially nonpartisan. She was the first openly ...
, who upon her retirement appointed Stephen directly to her position as interim District Attorney in 2017.
2018 District Attorney race and allegations of anti-semitism
In her successful campaign for District Attorney in 2018, Stephan's campaign created a website that accused Stephan's opponent of being supported by Jewish philanthropist
George Soros. When local San Diego media questioned Stephan about the alleged anti-semitic connotations of her attack website, Stephan walked away from reporters and had her security block them from asking her questions. It was widely publicized that George Soros Funded several DA's campaigns including Stephans opponent Genevieve Jones-Wright
Political affiliation
A life-long Republican, DA Stephan joined some other local politicians in quitting the party in 2019. In an interview, Stephan said her decision to re-register to “no party preference” was a professional one and declined to give her views on the Republican Party or the president. “I don’t want to opine about politics because that’s exactly what I’m trying to get away from,” she said in an interview.
See also
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List of district attorneys by county
This is a list of American state-level prosecutors, often known as district attorneys. In states which hold partisan elections for prosecutorial positions, the party affiliation of each prosecutor is noted.
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Alabama
District attor ...
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List of California district attorneys
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephan, Summer
District attorneys in California
Lawyers from San Diego
Living people
University of California, Davis alumni
McGeorge School of Law alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
California Republicans
California Independents