Michael Hestrin was elected as Riverside County District Attorney in June 2014 and was sworn in as the District Attorney on Jan. 5, 2015.
Hestrin was born in the Coachella Valley and he graduated in 1993 from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona with a bachelor’s degree in history. After college, he spent a year living in Mexico with relatives working as a reporter for a small newspaper based in Guadalajara. He then returned to the United States to begin his legal studies at Stanford University. Hestrin graduated from Stanford in 1997, with both a Juris Doctorate in Law and a master’s degree in Latin American studies.
Upon finishing his studies, Hestrin returned to Riverside County to begin his legal career. He started as a volunteer law clerk in 1997 with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office and was hired by then-District Attorney Grover Trask as a Deputy District Attorney the following year.
Before being elected as District Attorney, Hestrin spent 18 years as a line prosecutor in the DA’s Office. During his years as a prosecutor, he had the honor to represent the people of Riverside County in some of the most difficult and challenging cases. He has completed more than 100 jury trials during his career.
Throughout the 18 years Hestrin has worked as a prosecutor in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, it has been his great honor to represent the people of Riverside County and to play a part in keeping them safe. Hestrin currently lives in Temecula with his wife.