DA Hoovler Announces Appointment of Canton

GOSHEN – Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler on Friday, March 15, 2019, announced the upcoming promotion of Leah Canton to the position of Executive Assistant District Attorney. Ms. Canton will be the first woman in at least the last 40 years to be appointed to the executive staff of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Ms. Canton is a life-long resident of Orange County. She graduated from Goshen High School, from the State University of New York Stony Brook University, and from the New England School of Law in Boston. Since joining the staff of the District Attorney’s Office in 2005, Ms. Canton has worked her way up through the office, and has been involved in many of the functions of the Office. At various times she has been in charge of the Office’s Violent Crimes Unit and Special Investigations Unit. In addition, in 2013, before taking office, District Attorney Hoovler appointed Ms. Canton to his Community Advisory Board, a body comprising various community stakeholders and intended to connect the District Attorney’s Office with Orange County’s communities, so that proactive solutions to crime problems can be found.

Most recently, in 2018 Ms. Canton was designated the Office’s Anti-Violence Prosecutor, the primary day-to-day administrator of the Office’s functions in various City of Newburgh anti-violence initiatives, including the Gun-Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) initiative and the Non-Fatal Shooting initiative. During Ms. Canton’s tenure in that position, the City has seen dramatic reductions in shooting incidents, in part due to those initiatives. The programs that Ms. Canton oversees have become models for the rest of the nation.

In her new position, Ms. Canton will be involved in strategic planning on behalf of the Office, will continue her work on the GIVE and Non-Fatal Shooting programs, and will represent the Office on those programs with the New York State agencies that fund them. Ms. Canton will also be involved in developing policy within the Office.

“I am proud to promote Leah Canton to the position of Executive Assistant District Attorney,” said District Attorney Hoovler. “I’ve known Leah’s work in the District Attorney’s Office since before I was elected, and throughout her career in the Office, I know that she has been a conscientious and trustworthy prosecutor who has always been supportive of the cause of law enforcement. It will be my pleasure to add Leah to my executive staff.”