Gil Garcetti

Gilbert Salvador Iberri Garcetti (born August 5, 1941) is an American politician and lawyer. He served as Los Angeles County's 40th district attorney for two terms, from 1992 until November 7, 2000. He is the father of U.S. Ambassador to India and former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. Garcetti was born in Los Angeles, the son of Salvador Garcetti and Juanita Iberri. His father was born in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico, and brought to the United States as a child after his own father, Massimo Garcetti, a judge and immigrant to Mexico from Italy, was hanged during the Mexican Revolution. Gil's mother was born in Arizona, one of nineteen children born to a father whose parents were from Sonora, Mexico, and a mother born in Arizona, to Mexican parents. In 1959 Garcetti graduated from George Washington High School in South Los Angeles. The school has since become Washington Preparatory High School. Garcetti received a bachelor's degree in management from the University of Southern California and a Juris Doctor from the University of California, Los Angeles. Before becoming Los Angeles County District Attorney, Garcetti served within the office for over twenty years, from trial prosecutor to managerial positions and eventually becoming chief deputy district attorney for his predecessor, Ira Reiner (district attorney from 1984 to 1992). Reiner demoted Garcetti shortly after his 1988 re-election. Garcetti challenged his former mentor in the 1992 election. The campaign featured both candidates saying their opponent was corrupt. Reiner said Garcetti was a "secretive" person and "(was) not to be trusted in a position of power." Garcetti bested Reiner in the non-partisan June primary (where the top two candidates would advance should no candidate win an absolute majority), taking 34 percent to Reiner's 25, outpacing the incumbent by more than 100,000 votes. In September 1992, just two months before the general election, Reiner announced that he was suspending his campaign, saying he could not stomach the negative tactics he felt that were needed to win.