The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is one of 62 District Attorneys Offices in New York State.  Each of the District Attorneys is an independently elected official.  The powers and duties of the District Attorney are outlined in the County Law of New York State.  The District Attorney has broad prosecutorial discretion to determine how each of these cases will be prosecuted.  In order to perform these tasks, the District Attorney appoints a number of Assistant District Attorneys to prosecute cases pursuant to the law and office prosecution policies.

The District Attorney’s Office prosecutes cases which result from investigations and arrests made by 36 police agencies in Orange County.  These include three city police departments, 16 town police departments, 13 village police departments, the Orange County Sheriff, New York State Police Troops F and T, the New York State Park Police, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police.  Of the 18,000 cases prosecuted annually, approximately 17,000 are prosecuted in any one of our 59 Local Criminal Courts.  Approximately 1,000 felony cases, per year, are prosecuted in County Court.

In 2006 the authorized staff included the District Attorney, 41 Assistant District Attorneys, 19 clerical support personnel, and 10 investigators.  All investigators are police officers certified in the State of New York.  Individuals seeking employment should see our job opportunities section.

The photo below shows District Attorney Phillips speaking to state government and police officials during his tenure as President of the New York State District Attorneys Association from 1996 – 97.  Included in the photo are Governor Pataki, Attorney General Vacco, Assembly Speaker Silver, and District Attorneys Jeanine Pirro (Westchester), Charles J. Hynes (Kings) and Richard Brown (Queens).