2016 Candidate Interview Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Oct. 15, 2016)
Beverly Hills, MI – Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper is running for reelection. Also on the Nov. 8 ballot for Prosecutor is Republican Mike Goetz. Cooper was elected in 2008. Prior to that she served as a Judge at various levels for 28 years, and before that was an attorney in private practice.
When asked what inspired her towards doing justice work, Prosecutor Cooper said “In those days they were not a lot of women on the bench, and we had what I thought was an injustice at that time. A District Judge had some very strange concepts about what women did or where women should be, and I was at a function for someone else, and they said “somebody ought to run against them.’
“I was very young. I had just begun my practice, and I said ‘I live in Southfield Township, and I’ll sign one of those petitions.’ And they turned on me and said ‘You know he has some really inappropriate feelings about what women do. He thought that there should be a charting of women who shoplift and their menses.’ I kid you not. It was bizarre. And I said fine I will sign the petition. [They said] ‘No, we need a woman to run.’
“There’s no way I could win, and I’m not sure to this day if I want or he lost. But I worked very hard, and I became a District Judge and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the work. I enjoyed listening to both sides. And here I am now prosecutor all those years later.
“Having been a judge on many different levels, I tell you that is what a prosecutor should do. A prosecutor’s job is to listen, and to be fair. I think that helps. And when young people come in front of me to talk about cases, I’m listening to them and I’m giving them the type of feedback that they would receive from a judge or ultimately a jury. And so I think that brings a lot to it for me.
“Teaching is something for me that is critical. And when you teach, any teacher will tell you that when you teach, you learn. There’s always something to be learned. And that’s what I continue to do. I think that I brought a great difference to that job, and I’d like to see that continue. I don’t want to see it go backwards. I don’t want to see the type of things going on that were maybe eight years ago. We have a very professional office. And we have a very non-political office. I know that I run on a partisan ballot. I am where I am, and I’m very proud of who I am, but it doesn’t go into the office. There is nothing political about what we do. There are no aisles to Cross in law enforcement. Nobody is going to ask you what party you belong to before they harm you. Nobody’s going to ask you what party you belong to before you go into court and fight for you.”
In her interview with oc115, Prosecutor Cooper talked about what the Prosecutor’s job entails, how she works with other agencies, what endorsements she’s received from law enforcement agencies, and her recent “One Tough Cookie” award from the Girl Scouts of SE Michigan.
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Learn more about this candidate’s campaign at http://www.votecooper2016.com/.