Attorney's Office

Mission statement

To foster a safer, stronger community by seeking justice with integrity, fairness and professionalism, while providing the highest quality legal work for Rice County government.

In addition, the office's values are:

• Integrity: We are honest. We do the right thing. We practice law ethically.
• Fairness: Our role is not simply to convict, but to ensure that everyone involved in a criminal case is treated fairly, including all victims and defendants.
• Professionalism: We treat everyone with dignity and respect and provide excellent representation in our criminal and civil work.
• Respect: We welcome diverse people, ideas, thoughts, and differences of opinions.
• Positivity: We encourage our peers and coworkers. We support them and provide productive feedback to create and maintain a positive working environment.
• Responsibility: We honor our obligations of fairness and responsibility to provide excellent service for the good of the community. 

Finally, to help achieve our mission and live up to our values, we adopted the following goals:

• Attract and retain the best professionals by creating a culture of integrity, accountability and respect where everyone can achieve exceptional performance.
• Support victims, witnesses and their families by advocating for their rights and holding offenders accountable.
• Explore innovative restorative justice solutions so the criminal justice system reflects the values of Rice County.
• Build positive and collaborative relationships with key stakeholders in a manner that maintains our prosecutorial independence.
• Ensure conviction integrity through each stage of the criminal process from charging through case disposition.
• Provide high-quality legal services for civil and non-criminal cases within the statutory responsibilities for the office.
• Educate and engage the community on the criminal justice system by providing accurate and reliable information in the most transparent manner within our legal and ethical responsibilities.