Elizabeth Scheibel
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Elizabeth Scheibel
OR:
Elizabeth Scheibel on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Elizabeth “Betsy” Scheibel (born circa 1956) is a Massachusetts lawyer who served as the first female
district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a l ...
in Massachusetts.


Personal life and education

Scheibel attended
South Hadley South Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. South Hadley is home to Mount Holyoke Colleg ...
High School and then
Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...
. She was graduated in 1977 with a degree in psychobiology. She considered a career as a veterinarian. After seeing her future husband, South Hadley attorney Paul Boudreau, in law school she enrolled at
Western New England College School of Law Western New England University School of Law is a private, ABA-accredited law school in Western Massachusetts. Established in 1919, the law school has approximately 8,000 alumni who live and work across the United States and internationally. West ...
. She is a life-long resident of South Hadley. While serving as district attorney in 1997, she was diagnosed with
breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
. In 2016, she was appointed to the board of trustees for the
University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...
. Previously, she chaired the board of trustees at
Westfield State College Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. Ran ...
. She is friends with
John Scibak John W. Scibak (born May 4, 1953) is an American politician who represents the 2nd Hampshire District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He is a former South Hadley, Massachusetts Town Meeting Member (1990–2002) and was a member of ...
.


District attorney

Scheibel spent 30 years as a prosecutor, including nearly 18 as district attorney. She began her law career at the Hampden County District Attorney's office in 1980. Eight years later, in 1988, she took a job at the Northwestern District Attorney's office. In 1993, then-Governor William Weld appointed the then-district attorney, Judd Carhart, to a judgeship. Scheible, then-Carhart's first assistant, was appointed to serve out the remainder of his term. She was sworn in at Mary E. Wooley Hall on the Mount Holyoke campus. She ran as a Republican in the next four elections and was never challenged for the post. As district attorney, she had a staff of roughly 100 people and a budget of nearly $5 million. She prosecuted those involved in the suicide of Phoebe Prince in 2011. The
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
named her a Bostonian of the Year for her work on the case. In one of her earliest cases, she prosecuted Sean Seabrooks for stabbing his ex-girlfriend and their son. After he was convicted, Scheibel was invited to Japan, where Seabrook's victim's mother was originally from, and helped get Japan's first anti-domestic violence law passed. She retired in January 2012.


See also

*
List of first women lawyers and judges in Massachusetts This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Massachusetts. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are women who achieved other distinctions such becoming the first in t ...


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheibel, Elizabeth People from South Hadley, Massachusetts Massachusetts Republicans County district attorneys in Massachusetts American women lawyers Mount Holyoke College alumni University of Massachusetts Westfield State University 1950s births Living people 21st-century American women