Background
Jarrett was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby San Marino, California, graduating from San Marino High School in 1973.
Jarrett was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby San Marino, California, graduating from San Marino High School in 1973.
He graduated magna cum laude from Claremont Men"s College in 1977 with a degree in political science. He graduated from law school at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1980, and worked as a defense attorney for several years in San Francisco with the firm of Gordon & Rees Limited Liability Partnership. He maintains his California bar license and has taught law as an adjunct professor at New York Law School and lectured at other law schools.
He joined Fox in November 2002, after working over ten years for local television stations affiliated with National Broadcasting Company, American Broadcasting Company, Public Broadcasting Service and national networks Court television, and Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company. Prior to journalism he worked as a defense attorney in San Francisco. He maintains an active status with the California State Bar and is a frequent lecturer at law schools. Jarrett joined the Fox News Channel in November 2002.
He co-anchors weekend newscasts with Heather Childers and serves as a substitute anchor weekdays for America"s Newsroom (in for Bill Hemmer), Happening Now (in for Jon Scott), and Shepard Smith Reporting for (in for Shepard Smith).
He is also a correspondent for the network"s one-hour documentaries, and he serves as a legal analyst for both FNC and the Fox Business Network. He covered the Iraq War as a correspondent for Fox based in Baghdad from May through July, 2003.
Embedded with the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, he was among the first journalists to report from Fallujah. Prior to joining Fox, Jarrett worked at Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company as an anchor and correspondent.
He was anchoring the morning of September 11, 2001 during the 9/11 attacks.
He also served as a correspondent covering the Second Intifada in November and December 2001, reporting and anchoring newscasts from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Jarrett reported "live" from the Ben Yehuda Street bombing in Jerusalem on December 1, 2001 when two suicide bombers and a car bomb killed 13 people, including many children, and injured 188 others Jarrett also worked at Court television (the network now known as TruTV) for eight years, serving as the anchor of Prime Time Justice.
He hosted the network"s nationally syndicated half-hour magazine show, Inside America"s Courts, which was seen daily on broadcast stations (National Broadcasting Company in New York City and Los Angeles) and weekends on Consumer News and Business Channel. He was a main anchor for the O.J. Simpson murder trial on location in Los Angeles in 1995, and he covered other major trials including the Menendez brothers, William Kennedy Smith, Jeffrey Dahmer, Rodney King, Marv Albert, and former au pair Louise Woodward.
His weekly legal column, syndicated by Knight Ridder/Tribune Media, was distributed to 350 newspapers across the country. Prior to Court television, Jarrett worked for a number of local stations including KCSM-television in San Francisco, California.
WMDT-television in Salisbury, Maryland. WKFT-television in Raleigh, North Carolina and KSNW-television in Wichita, Kansas.
In mid-May 2014, Jarrett requested a leave of absence for personal reasons.
His leave was granted by Fox and he was replaced by other journalists with no date set for his return. On May 21, 2014, Jarrett was at a bar in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport when police were called. He was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of interfering with a peace officer and released after posting $300 bail.
Huffington Post reported that found in Jarrett"s possession were Gabapentin pills and evidence of recent release from an alcohol and chemical dependency treatment facility.
Jarrett returned to the airwaves of Fox News in early December 2014.