Gascón’s success depends on gaining deputies’ trust, respect

I consider myself to be a pretty progressive prosecutor. In fact, I was the first person to announce my candidacy for the position of district attorney against my then-boss Jackie Lacey in 2019. I ran on a platform with the aim of reduc-ing mass incarceration and reducing racial disparities much like our current District Attorney George Gascón. Ultimately after months of campaigning I decided to withdraw from the race and endorse him in his campaign.

And while I still a support many of his progressive ideas, I was nevertheless perplexed by his unwillingness to first take the time to learn the so-called lay of the land. As an outsider unfamiliar with L.A.’s vast criminal justice system, it was critical for him to get to know the deputy district attorneys who would presumably be working for him. But instead of doing that, literally moments after being sworn in, he issued a number of sweeping policy directives, which forced his prosecutors to take actions which they believed to be both illegal and unethical. This was a humongous mistake by Gascón.

Adding to this mistake came reports that a “snitch form” created by one of his campaign supporters was being circulated asking defense attorneys to write-up prosecutors who did not immediately fall in line with his new policies. And then there was troubling news about a secret backdoor deal involving one of Gascón’s special advisors and the same campaign supporter, whose client was being offered a very lenient sentence on a murder case.

In response to his new directives, the union representing the rank-and-file dep-uty district attorneys filed a lawsuit against Gascón this past December. In rul-ing largely in favor of the union’s request for a preliminary injunction, the court declared many of his policies to be unlawful and ordered Gascón to re-scind a number of his directives to prosecutors.

Gascón has repeatedly stated that only a handful of the union board members are against him while most of the other prosecutors are supportive of his poli-cies. I don’t know where he gets his information from but frankly nothing could be further from the truth. The overwhelming majority of my colleagues in the district attorney’s office are not in favor of his policies.

Now I am not ready to jump on the Recall George Gascón bandwagon. I may be in the minority but I still want him to succeed. It is important not only for the citizens of Los Angeles County, but equally important for all the men and women in the district attorney’s office, who have dedicated their careers repre-senting the People of the State of California.

But unless he immediately hits the pause and rewind button, he is destined to have a very acrimonious relationship with his own prosecutors. Gascón needs to understand his policies will not implement themselves. He needs his depu-ties to do that for him. He may want his prosecutors to “buy into” his notion of transformative justice, but right now they are not ready to do that. They simply do not trust him. Perhaps if he had consulted with senior prosecutors before issuing his special directives he could have avoided altogether the law-suit filed by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys and the court’s sub-sequent granting of a preliminary injunction against him. His success in re-forming Los Angeles’ criminal justice system is dependent not only getting his prosecutors to share his vision, but more importantly gaining their trust and mutual respect. As Jeffrey Rosen, the progressive district attorney from Santa Clara County and a leading contender to become the next state attorney gen-eral commented, “How reforms are implemented determines the success of these reforms. Leading does not mean dictating.” 

Richard Ceballos is a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles. He was a candidate for L.A. district attorney in 2020 before withdrawing his candidacy to support George Gascón.