LA DA names team to review past DA’s fatal police shooting decisions

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón followed through on a plan he announced when he took office, to create a task force to look into past fatal use of force encounters involving law enforcement.

On Wednesday, he announced the creation of The Factual Analysis Citizen Consulting Team, composed of community members, civil rights attorneys, scholars and others that will recommend further action on cases when they determine it is needed.

A statement from Gascon’s office said the team will not suggest whether charges should be filed, but rather will present findings and additional evidence with the help of UC Irvine and USC law students that may be contrary to previous District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s decisions on whether to prosecute.

In December, his office said team members would review cases back to 2012, the beginning of her term.

“In order to restore trust and move forward as a community, I am convening this group to thoroughly review the evidence and make recommendations on cases that we may need to examine more closely,” Gascón said in a statement. He called for the Legislature to change the law to state a law enforcement shooting is lawful only when it is absolutely necessary, and to allow the county to set up an entity separate from the DA’s office to review such cases.

Retired LA deputy district attorney Marc Debbaudt commented on the announcement, questioning whether the team is truly independent.

“I have no problem with an independent review of anything at any time, I just don’t believe that this is independent,” said the former president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which sued Gascón over some of his directives.

“Jackie Lacey articulated during her campaign [for reelection] that her decisions were based on the law and they are not really favorable to police prosecution, so maybe reform is necessary,” Debbaudt said. “But based on the law she felt she made decisions that were appropriate and so to review the decisions and claim, ‘Well you know we don’t agree with the decision,’ and to then say they were correct under the current state of the law or not correct is a big gap in the analysis and it’s not right and it’s not fair.”

The team’s 16 members include: Shimica Gaskins, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund; civil rights attorney Je Yon Jung; UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky; Melanie Ochoa of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California; Theron L. Bowman, former chief of police in Arlington, Texas; Allwyn Brown, former chief of police of Richmond, California, Roger Clark, former lieutenant of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; and Frank Fernandez, former deputy chief and chief of operations for the Miami Police Department.