Tracy Prior

Tracy Prior, Chief Deputy District Attorney from San Diego County, graduated college magna cum laude from UCLA and received her law degree from the University of San Francisco.  She externed at the California Supreme Court while in law school and has enjoyed a career as a prosecutor.  She has been a prosecutor for 24 years where she has tried over 75 cases to verdict including rape, child physical abuse, several multiple-victim child molestation, vehicular manslaughter, arson, and several murder cases including one Domestic Violence capital case.

After specializing in Domestic Violence and Child Abuse misdemeanor cases at the City Attorney’s Office Tracy joined the District Attorney’s office where she prosecuted general crimes in North County and then joined the Family Protection Division.  Tracy held significant leadership roles including Assistant Chief of the Family Protection Division for six years, trial as well as Chief of the Family Protection Division for three years.  

She also develops, coordinates, and leads the New Deputy District Attorney Training program, serves as a member of the Major case review committee, the Brady committee, and the Legal Training Advisory committee.  Tracy has served as an adjunct professor at Miramar and Palomar Colleges, has taught at the state and national levels and has presented to international audiences on topics surrounding Crawford v. Washington, use of propensity evidence in Domestic Violence, child suggestibility, and Sexual Assault cases, as well as prosecution of child molestation cases.   Tracy was instrumental in the development of San Diego County’s Strangulation Protocol which has increased felony filings of DV strangulation cases sevenfold since its implementation.  She also developed the San Diego County Elder Abuse protocol, authored chapters in California District Attorney’s Association Child Abuse and Domestic Violence manuals and authored an article for the National District Attorney’s Association publication The Prosecutor.  

Tracy currently serves as the Chair of the Domestic Violence Subcommittee of the National District Attorney’s Association Women’s Section where she led a team to develop protocols for information sharing and training between prosecutors and the National Football League and Major League Baseball. Tracy recently received the NDAA “Presidents Award” for her work in Child Abuse, a lifetime achievement award from the San Diego Domestic Violence Council, and the Chuck Nickel Award from the San Diego District Attorney’s Association.   

Recently, Tracy testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee as an expert on Domestic Violence Best practices for the hearing involving reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.  Tracy is currently leading the effort to open a 40,000 square foot Family Justice Center in San Diego County.  Tracy has been married 24 years and her biggest accomplishments are her two young boys, ages 12 and 10.