Specialized Prosecution Units

The District Attorney’s Office is organized into several prosecution units, in order to provide the most-specialized resources available to serve law enforcement agencies, crime victims, and all of the citizens of Orange County.

  1. County Court Bureau
  2. Appeals Bureau
  3. Special Projects & Community Affairs Bureau
  4. Local Court Bureau
  5. Staff Investigators Unit

The District Attorney holding a press conference.Responsible for the prosecution of felony crimes in Orange County Court, the County Court Bureau is under the supervision of the chief trial assistant district attorney. The Bureau draws on the most-experienced prosecutors from all of the specialized units in the District Attorney’s Office, to handle homicide offenses, including vehicular homicides.

An experienced homicide prosecutor is on-call 24 hours a day to respond to the scene of any homicide. The Bureau has several specialized prosecution units including:

  • Violent Crimes Unit: This unit prosecutes offenders charged with violent felony offenses, including assault, some weapons possession offenses, robbery, burglary, rioting, and terrorism.
  • Special Victims Unit: This unit prosecutes all felony cases involving sex crimes, domestic violence, kidnapping, crimes committed against the elderly, child abuse and child pornography, and crimes involving victims with mental or physical handicaps. Additionally, two assistant district attorneys, one fulltime and one part-time, comprise the misdemeanor domestic violence unit, Misdemeanors Matter, who work under the supervision of the Special Victims Unit supervisor.
  • Special Investigations Unit: This unit prosecutes offenders charged with a variety of felony offenses, including “white collar” crimes, welfare fraud, official misconduct, public corruption, arson, vehicular assault, and felony animal abuse cases.
  • Narcotics and Gun Unit: This unit prosecutes all felony-level narcotics, marijuana, and weapons offenses, including all offenses involving the sale of narcotics or marijuana, or those charged with possession of narcotics with intent to sell.
  • General Crimes Unit: This unit prosecutes felony cases that are not otherwise assigned to specialized felony prosecution units, including all DWI felonies.
  • Forfeiture and Revenue Crimes Unit: This unit seeks forfeiture of the proceeds, substituted proceeds, and instrumentalities of illegal activity, so they can be used to provide additional resources for law enforcement. The unit also prosecutes cases involving thefts of County and State funds. .
  • Grand Jury Unit: This unit consists of one senior assistant district attorney, who is responsible for scheduling the presentation of cases to Orange County grand juries, and for monitoring the operation of the grand juries.