Orange County DA’s Ebrahim Baytieh earns Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year honors

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA -  Orange County District Attorney's Office (OCDA)  Senior Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh was awarded the statewide honor of "Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year"  yesterday at the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA) Summer Conference, for his prosecutions and convictions of over 43 homicide defendants.

Not bad for a Lebanese immigrant who came to America at age 18 right out of high school with $200 in his pocket and unable to speak English, who became an attorney and  has been promoted through the ranks of the 265-lawyer Orange County District Attorney's Office from misdemeanors to special assignments to felony trials and finally to the prestigious homicide panel.

Baytieh enrolled at Golden West Community College - where he took mostly math and science classes working  50 to 60 hours a week to pay for his education.  He graduated from Cal State Fullerton, where he earned  a master's degree in finance, and graduated from  Western State School of Law.

During his last semester at Western State, where he served as student body president, Baytieh also started clerking at the Orange County District Attorney's Office and in  1996, Baytieh was hired as a: criminal prosecutor.

But wait there is more, while the OCDA handles cases from  over 100 law enforcement agencies in the county  its conviction rate is in over 95% with and rejects a relatively low number of cases. A review of the cases rejected by the OCDA’s office show that the agencies with most cases rejected by the OCDA’s office are the NPBPD, IPD, FPD, OCSD & CMPD.  The  SAPD, the OCDA’s second largest client records a low 12% reject rate. A logical conclusion is that the SAPD, which appears to be measuring its work, has a low reject rate, whereas the OCSD, which does not seem to use metrics, has a high reject rate.

Breakdown of cases submitted to the OCDA's office by volume - top five law enforcement agencies. Source: OCDA

Each year, CDAA recognizes individuals whose outstanding ability, professional dedication, personal sacrifice, and advancing ideals of criminal justice merit the respect and admiration of prosecutors statewide. Baytieh, of the OCDA's Homicide Unit, has convicted 43 defendants of murder with no acquittals and obtained the death penalty against five of those defendants.

"This award is a tremendous acknowledgment of the hard work and dedication that Ebrahim puts into every case.  He is passionate about protecting the rights of victims and tireless in his fight for justice. Ebrahim's receipt of the 'Prosecutor of the Year' award is well deserved and brings prestige to the Orange County District Attorney's Office," said id District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in a prepared statement

"I am very humbled and honored to receive this amazing award on a personal level; however, I also recognize that this award is more of a reflection on our great office and the excellent team of prosecutors and DA investigators that I am fortunate enough to work with every day," said Baytieh.