{"id":303661,"date":"2026-05-07T03:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/303661\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:01:37","slug":"yolo-county-district-attorney-slated-to-step-down-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/303661\/","title":{"rendered":"Yolo County district attorney slated to step down this month"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jeff Reisig first joined the Yolo County District Attorney\u2019s Office in the late 1990s, his office was in the county\u2019s former jail in an area where inmate cells once were located.<\/p>\n

His office looks a little different now, as he worked his way up through the department, with voters eventually electing him district attorney in 2006, a role he will soon depart.<\/p>\n

Reisig informed the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in a letter Tuesday that he plans to retire as district attorney after nearly 20 years effective May 15. The departure was first reported Wednesday morning by the Davis Vanguard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His career had many milestones, from advocating for Proposition 36 to bringing forth what\u2019s considered by some lawyers as the county\u2019s most complex criminal case in history, stemming from the Esparto fireworks explosion<\/a> that killed seven people on July 1.<\/p>\n

\"Yolo Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig talks Friday, May 5, 2023, at his Woodland office about prosecuting Carlos Reales Dominguez for the series of stabbings in Davis. Reales Dominguez is charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

\u201cHe really turned that case around in terms of putting a great team together, doing the important investigation and revealing the case to file those indictments,\u201d said Jonathan Raven, who served as Reisig\u2019s chief deputy until stepping down about two years ago.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello will lead the department through the remainder of the term, which ends in January 2029. She was tapped by Reisig, who was president of the California District Attorneys Association from 2021 to 2022, to oversee the Esparto case.<\/p>\n

Other major cases handled by Reisig included the killing of Yolo County Sheriff\u2019s Office Deputy Tony Diaz, the case of convicted murderer Daniel Marsh<\/a> and the Carlos Reales Dominguez case stemming from the 2023 series of stabbings in Davis. Dominguez will face a new jury later this month after the first trial ended in deadlock<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reisig\u2019s career extended beyond the courtroom, former Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said, calling him a \u201cbulldog\u201d who doesn\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n

Schubert and Reisig worked alongside California District Attorneys Association Chief Executive Officer Greg Totten to bring forth Prop. 36, which toughened penalties for repeat theft and hard drug offenses while enhancing treatment options.<\/p>\n

\"Yolo Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig speaks during a news conference on Friday, April 10, 2026, in Woodland after eight people were indicted in relation to the fatal Esparto fireworks explosion in 2025. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very passionate about the importance of getting treatment for people that have addiction issues, but also addressing the retail and theft issues,\u201d Schubert said.<\/p>\n

Bringing together a measure like Proposition 36<\/a> is similar to campaigning for office, Schubert said, as fundraising is a large component. She said Reisig\u2019s \u201cbulldog\u201d nature came out when fundraising as he remained persistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went to conferences, and he had the guts to walk up to people he doesn\u2019t even know and say, \u2018We need your help in California. It\u2019s impacting your business community,\u2019\u201d Schubert said. \u201cHe made contact with people we don\u2019t normally have relationships with. He just never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n

While under Reisig, the DA\u2019s Office was the first in California to use a \u201crace-blind\u201d system when deciding<\/a> whether to file charges.<\/p>\n

The program, implemented in 2021, didn\u2019t list the names of the potential defendants or victims. It also didn\u2019t give the location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment these police reports hit our office, we are making charging decisions without any information at all about the race of the individuals involved, and the idea is we want to eliminate any effects of implicit bias or explicit bias and just make a clean decision,\u201d Reisig said at the time.<\/p>\n

Amid his departure, Reisig said he is proud of the team he has worked with.<\/p>\n

\"Yolo Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig announces his decision to file charges against a West Sacramento resident, who later admitted to killing his three children, Kelvin, 11, Julie, 9, and Lucas, 7 months. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful for the opportunity I have had and proud of the highly competent and dedicated team that remains,\u201d he wrote in his letter to supervisors.<\/p>\n

Reisig, a graduate of UC Davis and the University of the Pacific\u2019s McGeorge School of Law in Oak Park, said he plans to spend time with his family in retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few individuals had significant caseloads and were facing challenges with family members and personal issues, and even though having them take time off would create challenges for the office, he would always tell them, \u2018You need to take care of your family and take time off, and we\u2019ll handle your caseload,\u2019\u201d Raven said.<\/p>\n

\"Yolo Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, photographed in his Woodland office on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021, has implemented a new race-blind charging policy in Yolo County in cooperation with Stanford University. The software redacts names, race and location for prosecutors making the decision to file charges in a case. Paul Kitagaki Jr. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 9:02 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Corey Schmidt<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Corey Schmidt is a watchdog reporter for the Sacramento Bee, focusing on Folsom, El Dorado Hills and Sacramento County\u2019s eastern suburbs. Previously, he was the government watchdog reporter for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Schmidt received his bachelor\u2019s degree from DePaul University in Chicago and his master\u2019s degree from Yale University.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jeff Reisig first joined the Yolo County District Attorney\u2019s Office in the late 1990s, his office was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-303661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}