A.J. Brady is a Bay Area native with more than a decade of experience keeping the community safe, working for the Marin County District Attorney’s Office prosecuting violent offenders and implementing innovative best practices and programs.
Born in San Francisco, A.J. is the oldest of three siblings and thirteen cousins. During his early years, A.J. lived in the Outer Sunset where he spent his afterschool hours in the dry-cleaning business run by his first-generation Chinese-American grandparents. In sixth grade, A.J. moved with his mother to San Rafael and later attended high school at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. He then received a B.A. in Political Science/Public Policy from University of California San Diego, where he met his wife Jenna, and later graduated cum laude from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
After law school, A.J. joined the Marin County District Attorney’s Office in the misdemeanor unit, where he cut his teeth making Marin safer by prosecuting DUI, battery, and drunk and disorderly cases. Soon afterward, A.J. was designated the misdemeanor expediter for the office, responsible for all misdemeanor plea negotiations. In that position, A.J. collaborated with defense attorneys, law enforcement, mental health professionals and non-profits to craft alternate sentencing for the community’s low level, but repeat offenders, with mental health or addiction issues.
Throughout his 13 years with the DA’s Office, A.J. has kept violent offenders off the streets by prosecuting cases of all types and severity from elder abuse to domestic violence to murder cases. In recent years A.J. obtained convictions in People v. Chet Turner, a murder-suicide pact case in Sausalito; in People v. Frank Souza, a prison murder that occurred in San Quentin; and in several recent vehicular manslaughter cases. During his tenure, A.J. has led the misdemeanor trial team, vertical DUI prosecution team, and felony trial prosecution teams. A.J. has also worked as the mental health deputy providing appropriate alternatives for those whose criminal actions are the result of serious mental illness. He is currently assigned to the Special Victims Unit, where his practice focuses on intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and gang prosecutions.
With a commitment to reshaping justice in Marin County through innovative best practices, A.J. has spearheaded several progressive policy projects including the Chronic Alcoholics with Justice Involvement (CAJI) pilot, which provides housing in lieu of incarceration to chronic alcoholics in San Rafael, and the Restorative Justice Diversionary Program, one of the first of its kind in the United States to use restorative justice for adult defendants. A.J. is deeply committed to collaborative justice and alternative approaches to traditional criminal prosecution that keep the community safe, improve victim satisfaction, and reduce instances of defendants reoffending.
A.J. lives in Corte Madera with his wife and two daughters, where he serves as President of the Reed Union School Board of Trustees and Vice-President of the Marin County School Board Association. As an elected official working to improve education in Marin County, A.J. helps oversee a $20 million budget and over 160 district employees. On the school board, he has consulted on strategic planning, employment, and litigation issues, and is working to increase fiscal responsibility in schools while maintaining excellent education standards for all students.