Cobb County's new district attorney, Joyette Holmes, started work this week, beginning Monday with an assembly of judges, legislators, prosecutors and well-wishers for her investiture.

“The support in the room was humbling,” Holmes told the Daily Report Monday evening. “I was just overwhelmed with the huge showing of law enforcement, the judiciary, the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, the Cobb courts, district attorneys and solicitors general from around the metro area. These are groups I know I'll be working with closely. I was just grateful.”

When it was over, she went to work—meeting with staff and community groups that work closely with the DA's office. She said she has made no decisions yet about leadership changes. For now, the top assistant DAs remain in place.

Holmes leaves behind the office of chief magistrate judge, a job she had held for the past four years. Judge Kellie Hill said at the investiture that Holmes has “transformed the magistrate court.”

Holmes said her highest priority as DA will be public safety, with a focus on tackling the opioid addiction crisis, stopping gang violence, ending human trafficking and protecting the elderly from increasingly becoming targets of financial exploitation.

Those goals reflect the direction taken by her predecessor, Vic Reynolds, now executive director of the Georgia Bureau of Intelligence, as well as Attorney General Chris Carr.

In the past four and a half months since Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Reynolds to the GBI, the Cobb job has been filled by interim DA John Melvin. Melvin will now join Reynolds at the GBI as executive director.

Holmes didn't echo the position taken by Melvin on the state's new abortion ban that was just the subject of a constitutional challenge Friday in federal court.

Melvin took a strong stance in favor of the ban, and in disagreement with some other DAs who said they would not enforce the criminal provisions of the abortion ban against doctors or women who sought their help. Melvin also disagreed with other DAs about whether women could be held criminally liable under the law—the Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, also referred to as the “heartbeat bill.”

“The authors of the LIFE Act or what people call the heartbeat bill did not intend that women seeking abortions be prosecuted,” Holmes said. “There is and will continue to be discussion about that point, because there is a defense written into the law.”

However, with the filing of a legal challenge Friday, she added, “the discussion definitely shifts.”

“We have to be responsible and wait for a decision from the courts to see whether that law is going to be stayed,” Holmes said. “While it's in the courts, it's our responsibility to not comment.”

The suit, by numerous abortion-rights groups against the governor, the attorney general and prosecutors around the state, seeks to block enforcement of the law, which is set to go into effect Jan. 1.

During the investiture for Holmes Monday, Kemp was praised for making history by appointing the first woman and first African-American DA in Cobb County. Georgia Court of Appeals Presiding Judge Yvette Miller said Kemp had found a “marriage of qualifications and diversity” with Holmes. “Gov. Kemp, you chose the best,” Miller said.

Also attending were the two African American justices on the Georgia Supreme Court—Chief Justice Harold Melton and former Chief Justice Robert Benham, the first person of color on the high court and a longtime mentor to Holmes.

Holmes said before making the decision to leave behind the job and colleagues she loved in magistrate court for the DA appointment, she went to God, her family and Benham.