Some judges, prosecutors defy new LA DA

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón's ambitions for reducing incarceration levels in the nation's largest local jail system have already reached a boiling point as some judges and his deputies have defied the policies he announced last week.

Prosecutors were directed to withdraw enhancement charges like gang affiliation and hate crimes in open cases and recent convictions at their next court appearances, but at least a dozen judges have denied those motions since the directive took effect last Tuesday, prosecutors told the Daily Journal. Some judges have gone as far as to say the requests are unethical and not in the interest of justice, according to sources familiar with the rejections.

And that sentiment isn't isolated to jurists. It's bleeding over into Gascón's office as well, and tensions between those who agree with his policies and those who don't are becoming palpable.

Two prosecutors declined to make motions in court last week to withdraw enhancements, and one of them was replaced in the courthouse by another deputy who did.

Prosecutors said they are being threatened by some members of management to comply with the directives, and deputies were notified on Friday to report any threats to the Association of Deputy District Attorneys of Los Angeles. Several described, on condition they not be identified, what they had seen or been told directly by colleagues involved.

Some who oppose the directive but said they fear retribution for defying it are writing out lengthy scripts for their next court appearances to make clear on the record that their requests to dismiss charges are strictly because of an order and not because it's the law, they said.

"We are rule followers, so a lot of us are just doing what we have to do and crying about it later," said one deputy district attorney who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Others said they are hopeful that if they can delay making these motions by invoking Marsy's Law, otherwise known as the Victim's Bill of Rights, to allow time to notify victims of these dismissals, that Gascón will consult with managing DAs and reconsider what he's asking them to do.

But that's not likely, as Max Szabo, a DA spokesman, said Gascón's policies are rooted in data and are here to stay.

Szabo said Gascón was not available to comment for this article.

"I think he always expected that there was going to be a strong traditionalist culture," Szabo said. "But the reality is that studies suggest that these policies will enhance safety and are overwhelmingly favored by the victims."

On his first day in office, Gascón held true to his campaign promises and announced a slate of unprecedented policies that he said would "turn the tide of mass incarceration" in LA County. He halted capital punishment filings and vowed to resentence those on death row who were convicted in LA to life in prison. He ended his deputies' request for bail. He said prosecutors will never file a sentence enhancement to secure lengthier prison sentences. And he pledged to never try juveniles in adult court and that he will prioritize resentencing nearly 20,000 convicted prisoners who are rated low risk by the prison system.

"This position was rife for a paradigm shift," said Eric Schweitzer, president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a statewide organization that represents private and public defense attorneys across the state. "By acknowledging the humanity of people accused of crime, Gascón did something that's been necessary for hundreds of years, not just in our system but around the world."

However, Robert A. Schwartz, a private defense attorney in Los Angeles who handles death penalty cases, said Gascón's capital punishment resentencing policy will likely cause some issues in court.

"When the charges are pending, that's one thing," Schwartz said. "But when you've already gone through a very lengthy trial and the case was of such gravity that both a jury and the judge believe that the defendant deserved a death verdict, I find it very difficult to believe that any judge is going to reverse that."

Gascón wrote in his directives to prosecutors, "These new policies capture our shared vision of justice for all in Los Angeles County."

However, several deputies in Los Angeles who spoke with the Daily Journal said they don't share that vision and that Gascón's policies have instead brought morale in the office to an all-time low.

"What he has done is taken away our tools to do our job and to protect victims and protect society," said Cindy Wallace, a deputy district attorney in the domestic violence unit. "He took a chainsaw to a bonsai tree. You don't do that."

One deputy who has been in the office for more than a decade said on condition of not being identified this is the first time there's been a concern that "prosecutors are following a leader who does not have the people at the top of his priority list."

"My job is to fight for the people, and it appears that [Gascón's] main goal is addressing the needs and concerns of the defendant," another deputy said, speaking on condition of not being identified.

But Szabo rejected that sentiment on Friday and said there's no support for it.

"That's the most tired argument that has been used to justify the policies of mass incarceration for the past few decades," said Szabo. "If you look at studies of victims, they overwhelmingly support the policies that Mr. Gascón has implemented."

Last week, Gascón appointed Joseph Iniguez as interim chief deputy district attorney to serve as his second in command. Iniguez ran against incumbent DA Jackie Lacey before withdrawing from the race to support Gascón's election.

His appointment, although not permanent, was characterized by some career prosecutors in the office as shocking.

"People work very hard in this office for 13, 14, 20 years, and he puts a Grade II deputy who contributed to his campaign as second in command," said Wallace. "I don't understand it."

"The chief deputy needs immense trial experience," said another career prosecutor who has handled complex, high profile trials for more than a decade. "That person is in charge of wiretaps... . That person is in charge of all the major cases."

Szabo declined to respond to these concerns about Iniguez on Friday.

Iniguez could not be reached by phone to respond to the comments.

While tensions in the office are high, some deputies said it's fully within Gascón's realm of authority to implement the changes he sought.

But some said they are still trying to grapple with how the new policies that they are bound by align with what they signed up for when they became prosecutors.

"Prosecutors in the LA DA's office are duty bound to protect victims, follow the law and prosecute ethically," Wallace said. "But we also have to follow directives. We also have to follow policies. And it's very difficult to square that up with the oath that we took and what he has directed us to do in these directives."