Sr. Assistant
District Attorney
Brooks T. Baker
| Mr. Baker is responsible for the prosecution of all Driving While Intoxicated
and related cases in Steuben County and the Steuben County Civil Forfeiture
Unit. Active not only in the prosecution of these matters, he also
works cooperatively with law enforcement in the training of officers and
the development of policy and procedures. As an Assistant District
Attorney he is also responsible for a wide variety of other felony matters
from grand jury presentation through trial and the appeals process.
As a first-year law student, he had the opportunity to volunteer as a summer intern in the Steuben County District Attorney’s Office. That introduction to the fast-paced world of criminal prosecution, where the pursuit of justice is the driving force, formed the basis for a decision to pursue criminal prosecution as a professional goal. Since joining the District Attorney’s staff in 1994, Mr. Baker has continued to pursue his profession, attending various training seminars, twice having had the opportunity to attend prosecutorial trial advocacy programs at the National Advocacy Center in Columbia, South Carolina. With a steady growth in arrest numbers over recent years, Mr. Baker oversees a DWI program which now handles in excess of 700 DWI related arrests annually and consistently achieves one of the top conviction rates in New York State. As a by-product of these convictions, Steuben County now ranks among the top counties statewide in the seizure and forfeiture of felony drunk drivers’ cars. Money from drug dealers, property and vehicles from burglars, and computers from internet criminals are also regularly seized and forfeited as Steuben County tries to take ill-gotten profits and ability to commit crimes away from criminals. Mr. Baker has been spent most of his life in Steuben County, attending public schools in Corning before eventually graduating from high school in the Boston area. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hobart College, and is a cum laude graduate of Albany Law School. The Baker family now resides in Corning. |