Prosecutor is a product of internship program

By HARRY SALTZGAVER | hsalt@gazettes.com | Grunion Gazette |PUBLISHED: July 13, 2021 at 11:48 a.m. 

Newest Long Beach prosecutor product of internship program

Jericho Williams grew up in a Long Beach neighborhood rife with gang violence. A desire to make a difference seized him, Williams said, and he headed down the path to becoming an attorney.

Williams recently became a deputy city prosecutor for Long Beach, becoming the first person to reach that position after first interning with the city prosecutor’s office.

“In my neighborhood, the interactions with the police were negative,” Williams said Monday, July 12. “I was a victim of gun violence.

“I used to believe I’d be a defense attorney,” he added. “Then I got the internship and realized that the prosecutors could use their discretion to make a difference.

Williams found his way to City Prosecutor Doug Haubert’s office in 2015, after Mayor Robert Garcia issued a challenge to city departments to use more interns. Getting a look at the system from the inside made a big difference, Williams said.

“In one case, the prosecutor fought for mental health treatment,” he said. “I asked, ‘Why not jail?’ They explained to me how this could break the cycle.”

Williams went to Long Beach Unified School District schools his entire childhood, including graduating from Poly High School. He enrolled at UC Riverside in 2011, earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Williams finished his internship and got hired as a law clerk for Haubert while he attended law school at Western State College of Law. He said by then, he was pretty sure where he wanted to work.

“He (Haubert) has buy-in from pretty much all the prosecutors,” Williams said. “They are advocates for the idea of diversion.”

Williams graduated from Western Law in 2019 and began studying for the California Bar Examination. The coronavirus pandemic slowed the process down, but he got it done. Haubert said there was no doubt he would hire Williams as a deputy city prosecutor.

“Jericho is the first person to go from CP (city prosecutor) intern to CP law clerk to CP prosecutor,” Haubert wrote in an email.

“Today (July 1) we will also highlight the story about his being a former intern,” he added. “And we hope this will inspire others to see that they can go from an ‘intern’ to a ‘prosecutor’ and serve their city in a relatively short time.”

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez came to Haubert’s office July 1 to swear Williams in as an attorney. Williams grew up in the First City Council District, which Gonzalez represented when she was on the council.

Serendipitously, Haubert was a law clerk in the city prosecutor’s office in 1999 when he passed the Bar. Then state Sen. Betty Karnette swore him in as an attorney in the Long Beach City Council chambers.

Williams, who is 28 and lives in Long Beach with his wife, Malaika, said it was too early to worry about long-term career goals.

“It took a lot to get here,” he said. “For the time being, I want to be here and serve my city.”