Monday, June 27, 2011
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Investigators’ Group Honors Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The California District Attorney Investigators’ Association on Friday honored Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Janice Maurizi as its 2011 Prosecutor of the Year at a conference in San Diego.
Established in 2004, the CDAIA Prosecutor of the Year Award is presented annually to a prosecutor “who has performed his or her duties with outstanding job performance, enthusiasm, teamwork and integrity,” according to the group’s website.
Maurizi is director of the District Attorney’s Bureau of Fraud and Corruption Prosecutions, which encompasses the office’s Consumer Protection, High-Tech Crime, Healthcare Fraud, Auto Insurance Fraud, Welfare Fraud, Major Fraud, Organized Crime, Public Integrity and Justice System Integrity divisions.
Since joining the office in 1984, Maurizi has prosecuted complex multiple murder trials including the “Green Widow” case which resulted in the 1994 death sentence of Mary Ellen Samuels, the fifth woman to reside on California’s death row.
She has also partnered with local, state and federal authorities to address legal shortcomings in domestic prosecution and international extradition laws, according to her office biography, and created www.escapingjustice.com, a Web site that informs the public about criminals who have failed to be extradited from Mexico.
Maurizi is credited with having authored numerous pieces of legislation, including AB 1432. That bill, which became law in 2004, removes restrictions that could bar the prosecution of fugitives who re-enter the United States after they are convicted or acquitted in a foreign court for crimes committed in the U.S.
Her efforts, the office said in a release, led to a 2005 decision by Mexican authorities to overturn a previous ruling by the Mexican Supreme Court that barred the extradition of accused killers facing life sentences in the United States, as well as the extradition of a twice deported, convicted drug dealer who fled to Mexico after murdering Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy David March in 2002.
Maurizi additionally helped launch the Computer Emergency Response Team program, which offers 24-hour response by District Attorney investigators to incidents of commercial network and proprietary computer software hacking, and recently spearheaded an effort to develop regional forensic laboratories for local law enforcement.
She is a married mother of five and earned her law degree from Whittier Law School.
Copyright 2011, Metropolitan News Company