Upon graduation from law school, he joined the Pittsburgh law firms of Grogan, Graffam, McGinley & Lucchino and Dattilo, Barry, Fasulo & Cambest as an associate. In 1990, he became a partner at Brucker, Zappala, Schneider & Porter, another Pittsburgh law firm. In 1995, he was named Chairman of the Allegheny County Board of Viewers. In December 1997, District Attorney
Robert E. Colville announced he was leaving the position to become judge on the Court of Common Pleas. Zappala was appointed by the Allegheny County's Common Pleas judges with 22 votes. His primary rival for the position, W. Christopher Conrad, received 6 votes. Shortly after his 1998 swearing-in as district attorney, Zappala fired Conrad, who had been working in the district attorney's office as lead homicide prosecutor. Zappala defeated Conrad again in the 1999 Democratic primary election for the district attorney position, with 63% of the vote. However, Conrad successfully pursued write-in votes on the Republican ballot, which led to Zappala facing Conrad again in the general election in November 1999. Zappala won handily. When Wecht was later indicted on a variety of charges, a defense attorney blamed Zappala for the probe, saying it was politically motivated. In 2012, when
Maddox Derkosh was killed by
African wild dogs after falling into their exhibit at the
Pittsburgh Zoo, Zappala stated that he would not charge his mother, Elizabeth Derkosh, who lifted her son to get a better point of view. He stated he was still investigating if the zoo had been at fault. Zappala was later involved in a dispute with Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Stephen A. Bucar over whether the city police bureau should change its eyewitness identification procedures. Zappala urged the police bureau to discontinue its use of simultaneous photo arrays, in which witnesses were typically shown photos of six to eight suspects on one sheet of paper, in favor of sequential photo arrays, in which they were shown photos individually. In 2016, Zappala paid nearly $1,400 in
bitcoin as ransom after his office computer network was taken hostage by the
Avalanche phishing group. In 2019, Zappala was re-elected with 59 percent of the primary vote and 57 percent in the general.
Plea deal controversy In 2021, Zappala sent an email to his prosecutors directing them not to offer plea deals to black attorney Milton Raiford, who had voiced criticisms about the criminal justice system. Raiford had publicly accused Zappala's office of being "systematically racist" and making varying plea offers depending on skin color during a court hearing. They also demanded an investigation by the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board into Zappala's actions. Some demanded Zappala's resignation or called for an investigation into his actions. His challenger, Matt Dugan, served as the chief public defender of Allegheny County and ran as a progressive candidate, campaigning on promises of criminal justice reform and diverting low-level offenders from incarceration. Despite losing the Democratic primary, the North Hills GOP write-in campaign proved successful, and Zappala was nominated by the Republicans. On October 26, 2023, during an interview on "The Big K Morning Show with Larry Richert and Marty Griffin" on
KDKA Radio, Zappala discussed the idea of suing the City of Pittsburgh to place the police force under federal receivership. He implied that this action would allow him to exercise direct authority over the City of Pittsburgh police force. There is no evidence to support this claim, either that the City of Pittsburgh police force was placed under federal receivership, or that Zappala could undertake such an action. He may be referring to a 1997 investigation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, which was undertaken to see whether there was a "pattern or practice" of unconstitutionality or civil rights abuses, but whether this was his intended meaning or not is unclear. In response, the mayor of Pittsburgh, Ed Gainey, released a statement saying, "It is evident that Mr. Zappala, unable to rely on his 20-year career, opts instead to mislead and incite fear to sway the election," Mr. Gainey remarked. "We have reviewed the case law, and if Mr. Zappala has a case or a statute that he can cite to prove he has the authority to seize control of our Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, I'd love to see it." In the same interview on "The Big K Morning Show with Larry Richert and Marty Griffin" on KDKA Radio, Zappala also spoke about his opponent, Matt Dugan, explaining, "They're being funded by... what's his name? Soros. [Soros] contributed a couple hundred thousand dollars to this guy, Dugan, this week. I mean, so my man is Darth Vader." On November 7, 2023, Zappala was re-elected, this time on the Republican ballot line, with 51.4 percent of the vote. ==Personal life==