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Rick Distaso | |
---|---|
Judge of the Stanislaus County Superior Court | |
Assumed office 2005 | |
Appointed by | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
Preceded by | Wray F. Ladine [1] |
Personal details | |
Born | Joseph Richard Distaso January 25,1967 Los Angeles County,California |
Political party | Republican [1] |
Education | University of Southern California (BA) [1] Loyola Marymount University (JD) [1] |
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1992-Present |
Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
Unit | Army Judge Advocate General's Corps 75th Legal Operations Detachment |
Joseph Richard "Rick" Distaso (born January 25,1967,in Los Angeles County,California) [2] is an American lawyer and judge.
He was the Stanislaus County,California,senior deputy district attorney who served as the lead prosecutor in the case against Scott Peterson,charged with and later convicted of murdering his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn child Conner Peterson in 2002. Laci was eight months pregnant with Conner at the time of the murder. [3]
Distaso attended University of Southern California as an undergraduate,and attended Loyola Law School for his law education. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 1992. [4] After graduation from law school,he was a lawyer for the Judge Advocate General's Corps,United States Army through 1996,with the rank of captain,and then joined the Stanislaus County district attorney's office. [4]
In 2005,Distaso was appointed a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Distaso was deployed to Afghanistan for a tour in the Army Reserves. In 2008,he was deployed to Afghanistan where he served as a Lieutenant Colonel and Deputy Commander of the 75th Legal Operations Detachment in the U.S. Army Reserves JAG Corps. [5]
As of December 2019,he is a judge for the Army's 4th Judicial Circuit. [6]
Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman murdered by her husband,Scott Lee Peterson,while eight months pregnant with their first child. On December 24,2002,Scott reported Laci missing from their home in Modesto,California.
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The Judiciary of California or the Judicial Branch of California is defined under the California Constitution as holding the judicial power of the state of California which is vested in the Supreme Court,the Courts of Appeal and the Superior Courts. The judiciary has a hierarchical structure with the California Supreme Court at the top,California Courts of Appeal as the primary appellate courts,and the California Superior Courts as the primary trial courts.
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This page lists notable alumni,students,and faculty of the University of California College of the Law,San Francisco,a public law school in San Francisco,California.
Birgit Fladager is the former District Attorney of Stanislaus County,California. She was elected in June,2006 and re-elected in 2010 and 2014. In each of those years,she got more than 50% of the vote in the primary election. She did not achieve this in 2018 and so ran against Deputy District Attorney John R. Mayne in the general election. She won that election and continued to be in office as of 2020.
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