Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf on Thursday formally announced her intention to run for reelection in 2025.
Graf has served as the county’s lead prosecutor since Jan. 31, 2020.
According to a press release from Graf’s office, she took 105 defendants to trial during her 15-year career as a local prosecutor and won 85 percent of her cases.
As DA, the release says, she has achieved a 100 percent conviction rate, earning guilty verdicts in multiple first-degree murder cases, including the high-profile torture and murder of 11-year-old Maxwell Schollenberger by his father and stepmother. She also oversaw the investigation into the shooting death of Lebanon city police Lt. William Lebo.
A lifelong resident of Lebanon County, Graf has received endorsements from local Republican officials including Congressman Dan Meuser, state Senator Chris Gebhard, state Reps. John Schlegel and Russ Diamond, County Commissioners Bob Phillips and Michael Kuhn, and Sheriff Jeffrie Marley.
Graf received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University and graduated cum laude from Duquesne University School of Law. She began her career as a clerk for Judge Samuel Kline and joined the District Attorney’s office as a prosecutor in 2009. She also opened the private Hess Law Firm P.C. in 2014, representing clients in business contracts, divorce and custody cases, child support, wills, and estates, the release states.
Graf lives in Lebanon with her husband Chris, a 13-year veteran of law enforcement, and has organized “Back the Blue” fundraisers to support members of law enforcement who have been shot or killed in the line of duty, as well as their families.
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