As her first planned appointment, Commonwealth’s Attorney-elect Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has announced that she will promote to Chief Deputy Cari Steele, who currently serves as assistant commonwealth’s attorney and current liaison to the City of Falls Church, effective Jan. 1, 2020. Steele is a 17-year veteran of the office, having served since 2002.

Dehghani-Tafti noted that ”Ms. Steele is uniformly well respected by the bench, bar, law enforcement, and the community at large, and will be invaluable in maintaining the institutional memory of the office. But just as importantly, her deep experience as a member of the local Mental Health and Criminal Justice Review Committee, as coordinator for the Sexual Assault Response Team, and as a liaison to the Arlington County Drug Treatment Court makes her a wonderful fit to implement our restorative justice and diversion policies.”

For her part, Steele stated “It has been a privilege to serve the citizens of Arlington County and the City of Falls Church for the last 17 years and I am excited to continue that service in this new role under the vision and leadership of our Commonwealth’s Attorney-Elect.”

In addition to being the liaison to the City of Falls Church Police Department, she is liaison to  the Child Advocacy Center, and the Special Victims’ Unit of the Arlington County Police Department. Steele is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arlington County Bar Association, a magna cum laude graduate of Methodist College and received her J.D. from the University of Richmond in 2000.

Steele is married to William Wetzonis and they have three children.