Alameda County District Attorney

DA O’Malley is well-known for her groundbreaking work in combatting human trafficking.  She started the Human Exploitation And Trafficking (H.E.A.T.) Watch Program that focuses on sex trafficking of all forms, including prosecuting more than 600 child sex trafficking cases and a robust prosecution unit dedicated to Labor Trafficking.  O’Malley brought one of the first major labor trafficking lawsuits against NBC Construction for exploiting and trafficking workers.  Upon conviction, defendants’ seized assets paid all 33 workers their full wages.  O’Malley created the Labor Trafficking Task Force, now 50 members strong, to work together to combat worker exploitation and labor trafficking.  More than 150 exploited workers have been helped. In 2016, D.A. O’Malley was selected as one of the five Awardees by the James Irvine Foundation, an Award that included grant funding.  DA O’Malley created the H.E.A.T. Institute, a California Research-Based Institute addressing root causes of human trafficking, building collaborative responses and leading changes in responses and protocols of government and non-government.  The Institute lifts up the voices of survivors as well as educates and engages the community about all forms of human trafficking. D.A. O’Malley’s professional accomplishments include monumental contributions in the legislature.  She has written and sponsored more than 40 bills that have been signed into law.  Her focus has been on improving systems’ responses and enhancing the rights for victim-survivors of interpersonal violence and other crimes, including the Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights.  She led the national and statewide efforts to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits; has written legislation to require all kits be tested and advocated for more than $170 million in the federal budgets for law enforcement to have all kits moved from property rooms to crime labs for testing.  DA O’Malley has received numerous awards for her leadership and her work.  She received the prestigious American Bar Association Margaret Brent Award, presented for achieving professional excellence and for paving the way for other women in the legal profession.  DA O’Malley is the only District Attorney in the country to receive this award, and shares it with other recipients including Hillary Clinton, United States Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, to name a few.