The Hon. Marisa J. Demeo is an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama in March 2009. Demeo was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 10, 2010.
She is the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division and served as Deputy Presiding Judge of the Probate and Tax Division. Demeo also held assignments in the Civil Division and the Domestic Violence Unit. Prior to her nomination, she presided as a magistrate in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court since 2007.
Before joining the bench, Demeo was an assistant United States attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (2004 to 2007) and worked for seven years as an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). She first joined MALDEF as a staff attorney in 1997 and was quickly promoted to head its District of Columbia office, where she advocated for Latino civil rights issues.
Demeo began her legal career as an Honors Program trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where she helped prosecute public employers in federal courts for employment discrimination.
She received a B.A. in politics (Latin American studies) from Princeton University in 1988. Demeo then completed a J.D. at New York University School of Law in 1993. While a law student, she sat on the Law Review. Demeo was selected as a Root-Tilden Scholar for her academic achievements and commitment to public interest matters.
Demeo sat on the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration and was co-chair of the District of Columbia Court’s Strategic Planning Leadership Council and chair of the Committee on Jury Management. She also served on the District of Columbia Sentencing Commission, the Judicial Education Committee (chair), and the Criminal Justice Act Implementation Committee.
Demeo is a past vice chairperson and chairperson of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia Judicial Council.
She is also an instructor at Georgetown University School of Law, where she has taught a course on problem-solving courts. Demeo has also taught criminal procedure and immigration law at Howard University School of Law.
She was born in Washington, D.C.