Rocah Takes Office As Westchester District Attorney

WHITE PLAINS, NY — With her hand on a copy of the United States Constitution, Mimi Rocah was sworn in Monday as the new Westchester County District Attorney.

Swearing her in was Preet Bharara, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The ceremony was held virtually from the district attorney's press room because of the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic.

Rocah, a Scarsdale resident, said she wished the ceremony could have been held in public but no one could have imagined the challenges everyone would be going through when she started campaigning last fall.

After taking the oath of office, she said the goals of her time in office are clear.

"Keep our community safe while making our system more fair, foster new ideas and rethink systems that no longer work, and help restore the public's confidence in our justice system," Rocah said.

"I pledge to be a district attorney who seeks to do justice for all the people of Westchester," she said.

Rocah won the Democratic primary in June over incumbent District Attorney Anthony Scarpino Jr. She ran unopposed in the general election in November after Republican Bruce Bendish dropped out of the race in September.

Rocah served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 2011 to 2017 in the Southern District of New York, overseeing the prosecution of organized crime, gun traffickers, corrupt public officials, narcotics dealers, sex traffickers and child predators, according to the district attorney's website.

Prior to the SDNY, Rocah clerked for the Eastern District of New York and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine and Moore.

Rocah most recently was Pace University School of Law's Distinguished Fellow in Criminal Justice and a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC News.

Like Hudson Valley Patches' Facebook Pages.