Gina Godbehere most recently served as the City of Goodyear Prosecutor, leaving that position to dedicate herself fulltime to her campaign to be the next Maricopa County Attorney. Prior to becoming Goodyear’s Chief Prosecutor, Gina had over two decades of experience in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) serving as a Bureau Chief and trial attorney in assignments with a wide variety of bureaus, including Juvenile, Gang, Homicide, and the Repeat Offender Unit.

Throughout her twenty-five years of service with MCAO, Gina played an integral role in developing the first Juvenile Drug Court, implementing the Juvenile Transfer Offender Program, and is the co-author and creator of the Ultimate Trial Research Notebook used by prosecution agencies throughout Arizona. For over two decades, Gina has trained hundreds of prosecutors in the art of persuasion and led by example as a fair-minded advocate for justice. She served as Maricopa County’s designated Bias Crimes Prosecutor for over a decade and has tried almost a hundred felony jury trials.

Gina is also the CEO and Co-founder of “Speak Up Stand Up Save a Life,” an organization dedicated to identifying and solving complex societal issues such as substance abuse, bullying and the rising teen suicide rate in Arizona. The vision for this novel collaboration was born from a tragic yet preventable murder-suicide at a local high school. In only 5 years, Speak Up Stand Up Save a Life has enjoyed exponential growth. In 2021, 10,000 students, school employees, parents, law enforcement officers and community leaders attended our annual conference designed to empower youth, enhance school safety, and help prevent the tragedies that too often stem from self-compensation, such as suicide and overdose. Speak Up Stand Up Save a Life is endorsed by the Governor and every Maricopa County municipality. The movement has impacted over 400,000 students throughout Arizona.

Gina is active in many community organizations, and has received numerous awards, including:

• 2021 Horace Rumpole Inn of Court TOPs Award
• 2020 Phoenix Panhellenic Woman of Impact Recipient
• 2019 Westmarc’s Best of the West Quality of Life Winner
• 2019 Capital Times Women Achievers of Arizona Recipient
• 2019 Center for the Future of Arizona Gabe Zimmerman in Public Service Award Winner
• 2019 Leadership West Alumnus of the Year Recipient.

Gina was born, raised, and currently resides in the west valley, where she lives with her husband and children.

As Maricopa County Attorney, Gina Godbehere, a career prosecutor, will Make Maricopa County Safer and a More Secure Place for Our Family and Friends by leading the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to be one of the most professional, ethical, and victim centric prosecution agencies in the nation. Gina Godbehere will also provide professional and ethical civil services to the Board of Supervisors and the residents of Maricopa County. Gina Godbehere is a fiscal conservative and will provide cost effective legal services to Maricopa County.  Gina’s leadership and policies will restore the rule of law and reverse the rise in crime rates across Maricopa County.

Leadership Matters: Gina has entered this race for County Attorney in Maricopa County because the status quo is not working. Gina is the innovative leader needed to solve the internal issues within the organization. She will work collaboratively with our community stakeholders to implement the needed solutions to better address the homeless, substance abuse and mental health issues, and will ensure all offenders are held responsible to address the growing violent crime threat at our doorsteps.

Reducing Crime Requires Effort: The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is only filing approximately 49% of the felony cases submitted for review and recently failed to file over 180 misdemeanor cases, including victim cases within the time required under the law.  High volumes of cases are being turned down or being downgraded to misdemeanors and sent to Municipal Courts leaving our Law Enforcement Officers feeling unsupported, shifting thousands of dollars in costs to our city taxpayers and making our communities less safe.  The unilateral decision to not use the enhanced prosecution laws currently on the books for repetitive shoplifters continue to enable drug users and harm our communities.   The County Attorney’s Office is suffering a 20% vacancy rate resulting in a reduced ability to meet the needs of victims, the community and our law enforcement partners. Fixing these issues will be Gina’s top priority to ensure a safer community for our families.

Professionalism Matters: Gina spent 25 years with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office where she served as a manager for 17 of those years under four different County Attorneys. Gina has trained prosecutors for over two decades. Her goal is to make MCAO, the third largest prosecution agency in the nation, the most professional prosecution agency in the nation.

Ethics Matter: Ethics is the foundation of a successful prosecution agency. Gina has trained prosecutors to internalize ethical rules and adopt ethical prosecution policies.  As the County Attorney she will lead others to do the same.

Innovative Problem Solving: When Gina was recruited to serve as the Chief Prosecutor for the City of Goodyear, she implemented favorable changes to strengthen the workforce, to create more efficient and effective procedures, to reduce the time to redact body-worn camera evidence and to convert the office to a paperless system. She successfully advocated and obtained funds to implement the West Valley’s first Community Court. Gina is a proven problem solver who is the innovative leader needed to lead the third largest prosecution office in the nation.

Incarcerate Violent, Sexual, and Repeat Offenders: Gina prosecuted violent and repeat offenders for over 25 years.  She knows that professional and ethical prosecution is the best way to hold violent, sexual, and repeat offenders accountable.  She will hold them accountable by seeking prison sentences for violent, sexual and repeat offenders.

Treatment First: Most misdemeanors and felonies in Maricopa County are related to substance abuse. Gina believes that treatment is the most effective way to hold alcohol and drug abuse offenders accountable in non-victim  Gina will work to reform substance abuse sentencing laws to reflect a treatment first approach.  She will work to expand home detention, including drug and alcohol monitoring, and treatment programs for substance abuse crimes.

Make Victims Safe: Gina is a champion of victims’ rights and will protect victims’ rights by aggressively enforcing their constitutional and statutory rights. For over two decades, Gina specialized in prosecuting violent gangs and homicides and has tried almost one hundred jury trials, successfully obtaining convictions in 99% of her trials. Gina will use the rule of law to hold offenders accountable and advocate for tough sentences to prevent defendants from being able to commit new crimes against victims.

Respect for Law Enforcement Officers: Gina knows that police officers have dangerous jobs and will fully and fairly review officer involved shootings and assaults. Gina will hold offenders accountable for shooting and/or assaulting officers.   When the police are not safe, a community is not safe. That is why Gina believes that anyone who uses a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument to assault an officer needs to face the toughest penalties under the law.

Fiscal Responsibility: Gina has experience managing a prosecution agency’s budget and implementing cost saving protocols. Gina will revise policies and streamline procedures to make MCAO more efficient.  Gina will work to reduce the cost of the criminal justice system by improving information sharing with other criminal justice agencies and partners.

Reduce Backlogs That Hinder Our Public Safety Mission:  MCAO has a charging backlog and a criminal history reporting backlog. These backlogs are unacceptable, have persisted for years, and endanger victims and our community. Gina will focus resources on the problem by promoting efficient policies and practices and adopting technological solutions.

Endorsements:  Gina is proud to be endorsed by police organizations representing over 40,000+ sworn law enforcement officers including the Arizona Police Associations; the Phoenix Law Enforcement (PLEA); the Phoenix Police Sergeant and Lieutenants Association; the National Border Patrol Council; the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Maricopa County Colleges; and representing the cities of Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, and Peoria. She is endorsed by numerous Republican Mayors and Council Members throughout Maricopa County.