About

Now a trial consultant and trial attorney in private practice, Seth Goldstein was the investigator and Project Director for the Child Abuse Vertical Prosecution Unit of the Napa County District Attorney, Napa, California for four years. He also worked as an investigator with the Santa Clara County District Attorney, San Jose, California, for three years. He has served as a Special Prosecutor for the San Benito County District Attorney, securing a second-degree murder conviction in a child abuse homicide. He now represents parents in Family Law, Juvenile, and Personal Injury matters wherein child abuse allegations have arisen.While the Project Director of the Vertical Prosecution Program of the Napa County District Attorney’s Office, the program achieved a 96.5% conviction rate at charging, charging 75% of the cases brought to the unit.Mr. Goldstein worked for the Berkeley, California, Police Department for thirteen years -three as a cadet and ten as a police officer. He served in the Patrol, Service, and Detective Divisions of the police department, including two years as a Juvenile Officer and five years as a Field Training Officer.Mr. Goldstein grew up in Berkeley and holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, at Berkeley. He was conferred a J.D. degree from the Oakland College of Law and was admitted to the California Bar in 1995.Mr. Goldstein was, at one time, the Chairman of the Northern California Juvenile Officers Association Committee on Sexual Abuse and Sexual Exploitation of Children and has served as the Association's President and editor of its newsletter. He has presented at seminars and workshops throughout the country and in Europe, including the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va. He is certified as a Master Instructor by the California Department of Justice, Peace Officers Standards and Training, Robert Presley Institute for Criminal Investigation.Mr. Goldstein has written several articles on the subject of sexual abuse and exploitation of children which have been published nationally and has received several awards for his work, including the American Bar Association's (ABA) Gavel Award in 1980, the California State Juvenile Officer's Dan Pursuit Award (Officer of the Year), in 1990, and the ABA, Child Advocacy, National Certificate of Recognition for Significant Legal Contributions Advancing the Welfare of Our Nation’s Children, in 1997.Mr. Goldstein is the author of the textbook The Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Practical Guide to Assessment, Investigation, and Intervention, 2nd Edition, published by CRC Press.Mr. Goldstein has testified as an expert witness in court, including a branch of the Florida Supreme Court, as well as numerous California and Federal legislative commissions and committees.Mr. Goldstein sat on the original California and United States Department of Justice Committees that created investigative and academy curriculum for investigations of sexual abuse and exploitation of children. He currently teaches specialized courses for professionals involved in assessing child abuse allegations in the context of custody and visitation cases, a topic on which he has published several articles. He has presented throughout the USA and overseas, including lecturing at seminars for the University of Southern California, Stanford and Harvard Universities, and the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va.Mr. Goldstein was invited by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges to participate with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts in creating curriculum for training child custody evaluators and others involved in assessing interpersonal violence in all of its forms in child custody matters. He was a consultant to the National Resource Center on Sexual Abuse of Children and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). He sat on the California Attorney General's Violent Crime Information Systems Advisory Group; was a founding Member of the Board of Directors of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children; is a former president of the Northern California Juvenile Officers Association (NCJOA); was a founding member of the California Sexual Assault Investigators Association (CSAIA); and, was a founding member of the American Professional Society on Abuse of Children (APSAC).Mr. Goldstein participates as an editorial review board member for the Journal of Family Trauma, Child Custody & Child Development and the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.In April of 1985, was invited to the White House to meet with President Ronald Reagan about the issue of missing and exploited children.

Practices Areas

Personal Injury

Divorce and separation

Family

Civil Rights

Language

English

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