About
I prosecuted them. Now I defend them.
Two decades on the defense side. Years inside the Riverside County DA’s office before that. Here is how that experience shapes every case I take.
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I’m Joseph Galasso.
I’ve spent my career on both sides of the table — first as a Deputy DA at the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, then as a private criminal defense attorney since 2002.
I handle the same kinds of cases I used to prosecute, in the same courthouses, in front of the same judges and across the table from the same DAs. That experience is what I bring to your case.
I worked on the Charles Ng case as an undergraduate.
While studying at Chapman University, I worked directly with the lead defense counsel from the Orange County Public Defender’s Office on People of the State of California v. Charles Ng — one of the most infamous serial murder trials in California history.
That experience taught me something I have carried into every case since: the worst charges are not won by panic. They are won by patient, methodical defense work.
I studied with Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
After earning a double bachelor’s in Criminal Justice and Psychology at Chapman, I returned for a Master’s in Criminal Justice. During graduate study I had the opportunity to study abroad under United States Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
I clerked for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office while in law school at Western State University, College of Law. By the time I passed the California Bar, I had already seen the criminal justice system from three different angles.
Promoted to the felony domestic violence unit as a Deputy DA.
After law school, I joined the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office as a Deputy DA. I was in court every day — preliminary hearings, misdemeanor jury trials, felony jury trials.
I was promoted to the felony domestic violence unit, where the cases get harder, and the stakes get higher. I learned how prosecutors think. I learned how they decide what to charge, what to drop, and where their evidence is weakest. I learned the Riverside County system from the inside.
Twenty years on the defense side.
Since 2002, I have practiced exclusively criminal defense — defending the same kinds of cases I used to prosecute, in the same courtrooms, in front of the same judges, and across the table from the same DAs.
The Riverside criminal justice system is not an abstraction to me. I know the people who run it. That changes how plea offers come in, how motions get heard, and how cases get to trial.
What’s going to happen to me?
The work is rarely about guilt or innocence.
For most clients, the question is not whether they did the thing they’re accused of. The real question is what happens next — and how much of their life they get to keep. Most of my practice is about controlling consequences. Reducing charges. Mitigating sentences. Keeping families together. Getting people home to their children and back to work as quickly as the case allows.
Trials matter, and I am ready for them. But the wins that show up most often look like this: a 25-to-life exposure brought down to a survivable sentence. A strike prior struck under Romero. A felony reduced to a misdemeanor under PC 17(b). A diversion granted instead of a conviction. None of these outcomes make headlines, but they are the difference between a life lost to the system and a life that continues.
Capital-qualified.
In Riverside County, attorneys who try death penalty cases have to be court-approved to do so. It is not a self-conferred credential — the court vets each attorney’s experience, trial record, and qualifications before adding them to the list. I am one of a small number of attorneys in Riverside County on that list.
Riverside County has historically charged more death penalty cases than almost any other county in California. The work is hard, the stakes are absolute, and most attorneys avoid these cases entirely.
When someone’s life is on the line, that is when defense work matters most — and when twenty years of trial experience earns its keep.
The hard cases also give the rest of my practice its perspective. When I sit down with a client facing a third strike, a long enhancement, or a felony charge with serious prison exposure, the lessons from capital work shape every motion I file, every plea conversation I have, and every trial decision I make. You do not need to be facing the worst case to benefit from a lawyer who has handled the worst cases.
I embrace the
hard cases.
Most attorneys avoid death penalty cases because of the heartache and the difficulty, but I embrace the hard cases.
Joseph W. Galasso
What I bring to your case.
Insider experience.
Years at the DA’s office means I know how prosecutors decide what to charge, what to drop, and where to push back. I read the same playbook I used to write.
Trial-ready.
I built my career in front of juries — misdemeanor and felony, preliminary hearings and trials. When a case has to go to trial, I am ready.
First-name basis in the courthouse.
Riverside County judges, prosecutors, and court personnel know me. That matters in negotiations and in motion practice.
Credentials.
Education
B.A., Criminal Justice and Psychology — Chapman University
M.A., Criminal Justice — Chapman University
J.D. — Western State University, College of Law
Study abroad with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy
Bar & Practice
State Bar of California
Practice: Criminal defense exclusively
Experience
Former Deputy DA, Riverside County District Attorney’s Office — Felony Domestic Violence Unit
Private defense practice since 2002
Thousands of cases handled