LA sheriff’s officers will attend parole hearings if DAs won’t

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators will replace prosecutors at parole hearings if District Attorney George Gascón continues to prohibit his attorneys from appearing at them, according to Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

In a three-page letter sent to Gascón Wednesday, the sheriff said his office will represent crime victims in the absence of prosecutors if the DA doesn't reverse his position that prosecutorial input at parole hearings has limited value and therefore they have no reason to attend.

"At the request of family members, the [sheriff's department] will do everything possible to give victims a voice at the table to address their concerns," Villanueva wrote.

Villanueva's letter comes as convicted double murderer Howard Elwin Jones was granted parole Wednesday in the first hearing without a prosecutor present under Gascón's policy. Prosecutors said Jones, convicted in 1990, has been denied parole twice since becoming eligible in 2014, and one of the victims' sisters was alone at the hearing advocating for herself. Prosecutors said Jones had a public defender present at the hearing.

It's an uncommon move for a sheriff whose department has traditionally only written letters to the parole board when it has had public safety concerns about the potential release of an inmate. Prosecutors say Villanueva's decision to send his officials to appear in their absence is unprecedented.

"Some investigating officers, on certain high profile cases, do attend parole hearings. But it's rare," said Deputy Los Angeles County District Attorney Jon Hatami, who has been an outspoken critic of his new boss' policies.

Under Gascón's Special Directive 20-14, prosecutors are not allowed to attend parole hearings and are instead directed to support granting parole for convicts who have served their mandatory minimum sentences. The policy states parole is an effective tool to "reduce recidivism, ensure public safety, and assist people in successfully rejoining society."

Only if and when the prisons department has determined in its risk assessment that a convict presents a high risk of recidivism can prosecutors write a letter to the parole board taking a neutral position on granting parole, according to the special directive.

"We are not experts on rehabilitation," Gascón's directive states. "While we have information about the crime of conviction, the Board of Parole Hearings already has this information. Further, as the crime of conviction is of limited value in considering parole suitability years or decades later, the value of a prosecutor's input in parole hearings is also limited."

But prosecutors say they have a constitutional role to represent victims at parole hearings if requested and, if necessary, to dispute the version of events offered by inmates, who have an attorney present at the hearings.

"It is completely contrary to victims' rights that the current LA DA believes the role of the prosecutor ends at sentencing," said Hatami. "It is horrifying for a family member to appear at a hearing, and come face to face with the murderer or molester of their child, listen to him [or] her justify the horrible crime, and there is no one there to fight for the victim and explain the truth and facts."

Villanueva wrote that he wants to work with Gascón to implement "fact-based reforms that truly enhance public safety and keep the rights of victims in mind." But he said he doesn't agree that preventing prosecutors from attending parole hearings is a way to accomplish that.

"We both agree that reforms need to be made to increase the capacity to help those within our communities who are suffering from mental illness and substance abuse," Villanueva wrote. "That being said, I cannot understand why your office is barring prosecutors from attending parole hearings."

Copied on the letter was the LA County Board of Supervisors, a member of which recently asked Gascón to conduct a "thorough review" of his parole policy after she was contacted by a mother whose children were raped by Ruben Beltran, who has been in prison since 2004 but is up for a parole hearing next month.

"I am concerned that this lack of representation for survivors, in this case and others, will lead to more victimization among our residents," Supervisor Kathryn Barger wrote in a letter to Gascón on Jan. 21.

Gascón has said the parole board is capable of making proper decisions regarding the early release of prisoners, and that the board only grants it roughly 15% of the time. However, according to data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the grant rate in Los Angeles County last December was 49.2%. Statewide, the percentage of parole hearings held that resulted in a grant of parole jumped from 16% in 2009 to 34.4% in 2019, according to prisons department data.

The DA's Office did not respond to questions regarding this discrepancy and about Villanueva's letter.