Gil Garcetti

Entering the 1992 elections, LA County was still recovering from the aftermath of the highly publicized 1991 Rodney King beating at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the massive unrest of the 1992 LA Riots. His first term was dominated by his office's prosecution of the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. The long, costly criminal trial ended with a "not guilty" verdict on October 3, 1995. Despite the setback, Garcetti won re-election in 1996, narrowly defeating challenger John Lynch.[5][6]

Garcetti focused both his terms working to solve a number of issues including domestic violence, hate crimes, welfare fraud and combating LA's street gangs. In late 1999 the LAPD's Rampart scandal erupted with allegations of extreme police misconduct from the city's Rampart Division which likely contributed to Garcetti's defeat in the 2000 election.

Garcetti was challenged for re-election in 2000 by Steve Cooley, a veteran of the L.A. County D.A.'s office. In a situation much like Garcetti's demotion in 1988 that led him to challenge Reiner in 1992, Cooley was demoted by Garcetti after Garcetti's 1996 re-election after Cooley supported Garcetti's opponent, John Lynch.[7]

Garcetti came in second in a competitive three-person primary, taking 37 percent of the vote to Cooley's 39.[8] In the two-person runoff, Garcetti lost overwhelmingly, losing by a margin of approximately 64 to 36 percent.[7]

The 2000 election ended Garcetti's 32-year career with the LA County district attorney's office. In 2002, Los Angeles City Council president Alex Padilla appointed Garcetti to the Los Angeles city ethics commission for a five-year term. In the fall of 2002, Garcetti was a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has been developing a foundation to help Latino and African-American students complete their high school education. He is currently a strong proponent of Proposition 34, an initiative that will replace the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Garcetti has argued that the death penalty is broken beyond repair, that it is "horrendously expensive" and that it carries the risk of executing an innocent person.[9]

Garcetti has always been an avid urban photographer. During his time as district attorney he would carry a small camera with him at all times. After leaving the DA's office, Garcetti focused on art photography, initially producing two collections on the Walt Disney Concert Hall: Iron: Erecting the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Balcony Press 2002), focusing on the ironworkers who constructed the landmark, and Frozen Music (Balcony Press 2003), focusing on the finished building itself. Photos from these works were featured in an exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. His most recent exhibition, Dance in Cuba: Photographs by Gil Garcetti (Balcony Press 2005), was featured at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Spring 2006.[10] Water is Key: A Better Future for Africa (Balcony Press 2007) was published via a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to the Pacific Institute as a benefit to NGOs supporting clean water projects in Africa.[11]

Garcetti made a presentation of his photographs of West Africa to an L.A. women's group, and the group's leader, Barbara Goldberg, was so moved by the images and Garcetti's impassioned description of the water crisis that she formed a nonprofit organization dedicated to drilling wells to bring safe water to West Africa. Garcetti's involvement with bringing safe water to the people of West Africa began in January 2001, when he visited West Africa as the guest of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. He made four subsequent trips to West Africa and from the photographs he took, a book was born: "Water Is Key". Since 2006, he has worked tirelessly and successfully to raise awareness and funds to drill wells in West Africa. His life goal is to continue to fund wells to save lives with safe water. Garcetti is special advisor to the Wells Bring Hope board of directors. [12] Garcetti was also an award presenter during a fundraiser held on September 27, 2015 at the estate of businessman Stanley Black.

Gil Garcetti served as a consulting producer on the TNT series The Closer from its debut in 2005 and Major Crimes from its debut in 2012.

His son, Los Angeles City Councilor, later Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti, appeared as the fictional Los Angeles Mayor Ramon Quintero, in two episodes each of both series.[13] In his first appearance, father and son appeared together onscreen, with Gil playing the LAPD Chief of Police.