ABOUT US

     Colette Wallace McEachin was elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Richmond in November, 2019. She is the first woman and the first African-American woman ever elected Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney. She has worked in that office for over 25 years. Prior to her election she was the Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney responsible for supervising prosecutors in the General District Courtrooms that handle misdemeanor crimes, felony preliminary hearings, and traffic cases. She also supervised felony sexual assault cases and the Office’s community-based Sector prosecutors. She has prosecuted crimes at every level, from domestic violence to burglaries, rape and homicides.

Colette graduated from Brown University and received her Juris Doctorate from the University of  Virginia School of Law. Colette is a member of various bar associations, including the Virginia State Bar, the Richmond Criminal Bar, the Hill-Tucker Bar Association, the National District Attorneys Association and the National Black Prosecutors Association. She was formerly the Chair of the Virginia Forensic Science Board, the Criminal Law Section of the Virginia State Bar and the Hill-Tucker Bar Association’s Executive Board. She served on the faculty for the Virginia Supreme Court’s Professionalism Course, which is mandatory for all new attorneys. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Communities in Schools-VA, the Virginia Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Task Force, and was formerly a member of the Richmond Mayor’s Task Force on Re- imagining Public Safety and the State Maternal Mortality Review Team. She is currently on the Board of NextUp RVA, which organizes after-school programs in all Richmond public middle schools. She was a member of the Board of Visitors for Virginia Commonwealth University and has previously served on the governing Boards for St. Catherine’s School, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, and the St. Peter Baptist Church Child Development Center. She is a member of the Richmond Crusade for Voters, a Life Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a Life Member of the NAACP.

The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office

• OPPOSES the use of cash bonds for most non-violent offenses.

• Has created the COMMUNITY JUSTICE REFORM UNIT (CJR) to (1) provide evidence-based criminal justice reform policy recommendations to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office; (2) implement office policies and practices that promote equity, justice and public safety; (3) improve and expand community-based diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration; (4) provide training to prosecutors on issues of criminal justice reform; and (5) expand our engagement with the community.

• Participates in the JUVENILE JUSTICE COLLABORATIVE (JJC), run by the 13th District Court Service Unit.  The purpose of the JJC is to bring stakeholders together to systematically improve the way our city approaches juvenile justice.  In partnering with other agencies, this office supports efforts to divert cases stemming from behavior issues in school away from the court, reduce the number of juveniles who are detained, reduce violence among our youth, and provide a trauma-informed response to juveniles and their families.

• Supports PROGRESSIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS through the use of a range of ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION, community service, and specialized BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND DRUG COURT DOCKETS designed to avoid incarceration, reduce recidivism, and address mental health and substance abuse needs of persons charged with criminal offenses. 

• Supports RESTORATIVE JUSTICE programs that shift the focus from prosecution and punishment to restoration of relationships between the victim, the offender, and the community.

• Recognizes that EQUITY demands that each case be assessed on its individual merits, considering the impact that it has on the victim, the offender, and the Richmond community as a whole. 

• Supports the EXPUNGEMENT of eligible charges and allows individuals to personally serve our Office with their expungement petitions in lieu of having to pay a process server to do so.

• Has offices in the John Marshall Courthouse, the Marsh/Manchester Courthouse and the Oliver Hill Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courthouse. 

• Prosecutes felony, misdemeanor and traffic offenses that occur in the City of Richmond. 

Click here for annual Office Caseload Summary