Judge Gregory Thompson was appointed Judge Pro Tem for the Intertribal Court in 2013, Associate Judge in 2015, and Interim Chief Judge in November 2024. Before joining the court Judge Thompson had a distinguished career in criminal justice--the only Californian to have served as chief assistant in three urban district attorneys’ offices: Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles Counties. In Los Angeles he oversaw the nation’s largest local prosecution agency with more than 900 attorneys and a staff of 3,000. In the spring of 1992, during the LA Riots, he led the District Attorney’s Task Force on Civil Disorder. His tenure as an executive prosecutor is marked by strategic efforts to reduce violent crime, serve crime victims, and help at-risk youth.

 

After three decades that chapter in Judge Thompson’s professional life ended in 2003 when he accepted appointment as Director of San Diego County’s Regional Forensic Laboratory and Crime Scene Investigation Team. As Director, he dramatically expanded the use of forensic DNA analysis and created a Cold Case Forensic Team to examine unsolved homicides.

 

In 2009 Mr. Thompson was appointed Senior Policy Advisor in the executive office of the San Diego County Sheriff. His responsibilities included development of crime control strategies in a service area of over 4,200 square miles extending to a 60-mile international border. He served as the Sheriff’s liaison to San Diego County’s eighteen federally recognized tribal governments and developed training programs for frontline peace officers on the enforcement of law in Indian Country.

 

In 2015 Mr. Thompson retired from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department and was appointed Associate Judge.   

 

Judge Thompson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Biola University and his Juris Doctorate from University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. An Adjunct instructor at San Diego State University for more than ten years, he taught courses in criminal justice and forensic science and created the text Contemporary Readings in Crime Control Policy. He appears as host and narrator in the film Threat Assessment and Management: A New Way of Thinking, advocating a multi-disciplinary approach to workplace and family violence. He has testified numerous times before the California Legislature on criminal justice policy.

 

Judge Thompson serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Youth Athletic Center, a youth boxing club in San Diego’s South Bay dedicated to serving at-risk kids. He and his wife, Jennifer, reside in San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo community. They have two grown daughters and four grandchildren.