LoStracco Interview - Daria Ricks

Picture a tall, lovely woman with long light brown hair and a smile that draws y into a direct attention, coming into a classroom. She has a pleasant voice that will exhilarate people and has a passion to make a difference on the college campus of Stephen F. Austin State University. She speaks her mind, and is not nervous when it comes to big audiences, and don’t sugar code information for anyone. Look no further, Nicole LoStracco, 37, has participated in multiple programs with Peggy Scott who is with the judicial office at Stephen F. Austin State University. She has been the guest speaker at programs like Anti-Hazing and Date Rape Prevention to many students and organizations on campus. She also talks about the dangers of alcohol, sex and drugs. “It can have a big impact on your future, you got to be careful,” she said. She participates in these programs because the judicial office at SFA asks her to and she wants to inform students of their rights. She said most of her clients are from SFA and those with whom she comes in contact in her defense office.

“Alcohol is a real big issues nowadays,” LoStracco said. She was one of the guest speakers at the program called Risk Management Training on Sept. 24. Ten days later, SFA student Nikolas Gallegos died of alcohol poisoning. She said, “Emotionally, I have to look at view of the parents, you will know when you have kids.” LoStracco, is an law attorney who grew up in the suburban San Francisco area. She was also raised in Belgium and Hawaii. Her family members to her father and her godfather were lawyers. Her father’s business transferred the family to Hawaii and that is why she spent most of her holidays on the island. She graduated from Mills College, a liberal art’s women’s university in San Francisco. When she was in her junior year in college, she had the opportunity of a lifetime to go to Spain for 18 months and soon planned to further her education and go to graduate school.

LoStracco went to Texas Tech University in Lubbock where she got her law degree. While attending Texas Tech, she met her future husband, James R. LoStracco. She decided to double her courses in the second year so they could graduate at the same time and be together after graduate school. She ended up graduating six months early. After graduating she came back to Nacogdoches and the two of them got married. They now have a daughter named Julia who is four and a half, and a son named Trey who will be two this month. After she followed her husband to Nacogdoches she needed a job. Her first year she went to Lufkin and thought of working for a bank but that did not work out for her. Then LoStracco went to practice law. “I probably spent a year doing that,” LoStracco said. She specialized in child assault cases, in which she kept doing for another couple of years.

LoStracco served eight years as an assistant district attorney in Nacogdoches and in October, 2004, she left the District Attorney’s office and opened up her own criminal defense office. LoStracco thinks that in order for lawyers to be able to help people in bad situations with the law that the client should be honest with them and she never help anyone who she does not find that are honest to her. She said, “As a defense lawyer 90 percent is plea bargaining.” In most of the cases she has dealt with, half of her clients have committed the crime and want the best plea bargain possible. She has been doing criminal defense work for a while and is now turning back to the District Attorney’s office. She said, “I believe that the numbers at the office are down and the managerial position needs to be worked out.” She also said that her friends and people who work at the office want her to come back and have told her about the problems they are faced with at their jobs.

“ I am going back because things need to be changed, LoStracco said. “One of the hardest things to do is managing people,” she said. She also believes that firing people who are not keeping up with the pace or just not cutting it is also the hardest thing to do.

LoStracco is now running in the political office to be the next district attorney. If she wins the election, she will be serving a four-year term. She is a Republican and she is running against Stephanie Stephens who is the district attorney in office at the moment. The primary is March 4, 2008 and then people will know who the next district attorney will be. If elected she will take office in January 2009. LoStracco said that if she does not win the election, she knows that she has a great job working at her own criminal defense office and if she does she will have a new exciting job that she will like.

Nicole LoStracco leads a very interesting life, filled with goals, achievements, and happiness. She has a career working at her own criminal defense office, soon will be running for District Attorney, a guest speaker at college campus giving awareness to students, and married with a husband and two kids. Nicole LoStracco is a woman who is dedicated to help students and others on a daily basis.