Houston County District Attorney

David Cooke is Chief of the Special Victims Unit (SVU) in the Houston County District Attorney's Office, where he prosecutes crimes against women and children and other serious violent felonies. A career prosecutor, Mr. Cooke was a Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney in Atlanta, Georgia, where he prosecuted a number of high-profile cases, including the starvation and torture-murder of five-year-old Terrell Peterson. In addition to working in the Homicide and Special Victims Units in Atlanta, Cooke served as an Assistant Solicitor-General in Athens, GA, and as an Assistant District Attorney in his hometown of Carrollton. Cooke also served as an Assistant United States Attorney, specializing in prosecuting Internet Crimes Against Children. In 2003, Cooke was featured (along with a number of professional athletes) in the book "Real Men Do Yoga". Cooke tried over sixteen murder trials in 2004, and was later named the Special Unit “Lawyer of the Year” by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. In 2005, he was named one of the 10 Georgia lawyers "On the Rise" by the Fulton County Daily Report, and was later nominated as Georgia’s Assistant District Attorney of the Year. Cooke has also received awards for his advocacy from the US Department of Justice in 2006 and the Rainbow House Children’s Resource Center in 2008. He is married to the former Rebecca Rowell. The Cookes have three children, and reside in Macon.