George Gascon, the “awakened” LA district attorney, has been accused of throwing the book at rapper Tory Lanez in an attempt to deflect attacks on his soft-on-crime approach, leading murderers and child molesters years earlier were released.
The Democratic prosecutor demanded an increase in the maximum sentence available to the Canadian musician as he was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for shooting his former lover Megan Thee Stallion in the foot.
Gascon’s office had pushed for a 13-year prison sentence, claiming less would ‘endanger the public’, but was accused of single-handing the musician to save his own embattled career.
But in the same state, murderer Andres Cachu was released in 2021 after just five years before being rearrested as trans child molester Hannah Tubbs secretly laughed at her two-year sentence in a juvenile facility for her assault on a 10-year-old girl.
Defense attorney Matthew Barhoma slammed prosecutors for the “disparity in demanding a 13-year prison sentence,” which, he added, is “quite a departure from the LA DA’s own sentencing policy.”
Controversial Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has been attacked at Long Beach Pride’s 40th annual parade on Sunday (pictured) for shortening criminals’ jail time
But there was no mercy for rapper Tony Lanez (left) as prosecutors sought the maximum sentence for his assault on former lover and fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion (right)
“This disparity is wanted just because he’s Tory Lanez,” he added.
“The fact that he is Tory Lanez is no reason to seek penalty improvements. The prosecutor is coming.’
Gascon made his name as a district attorney in San Francisco, where he co-authored the infamous Senate bill, Proposition 47, which reduced the number of crimes in the code.
And he reiterated the move as he pledged to abolish bail on his first day in office in December 2020, pledging the release of hundreds of people from LA County jails.
He said his prosecutors would no longer seek the death penalty, which he called “racist,” and pledged to end the prosecution of youths as adults.
He estimated about 20,000 state prisoners would be eligible for parole, but his reforms have enraged the staff, leading to at least 140 unfilled positions and a backlog of 10,000 cases.
“The problem is people started leaving because they were so tired of his policies, so those of us who stayed are carrying two or three times as many files,” a prosecutor told the NY Post.
But it is his determination to keep young people out of the criminal justice system that has jeopardized his reelection and helped fuel a recall campaign by victims’ rights advocates that garnered more than 715,000 signatures last year.
Gascon pleaded with judges to release triple murderer Raymond Butler (left) from death row with his lawyer, while murderer Andres Cachu (right) was free after just five years
Andres Cachu was 17 when he killed Louis Amela, 41, during a robbery in 2015.
He was tried as an adult and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison in 2016.
But Gascon agreed to Cachu’s release after just five years in 2021, a year before he was arrested again during a car chase while high on drugs and holding a gun.
“We are frustrated to see him struggling,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
Victor Bibiano, 30, arrested last April for the murder of a homeless person in Pacoima, was released from prison in 2021 after serving just eight years of a life sentence for a double murder because Gascón refused to transfer his case from juvenile to adult court.
And last year, Gascon asked a judge to release triple murderer Raymond Butler from death row, 28 years after he shot Japanese film students Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura in the head.
“In my career as a prosecutor, I’ve never had victims’ families really hate us until I came into this office,” a former deputy prosecutor told The Post.
“We are hated by all victims because of the lack of prosecution and low sentences because of his policies.”
Even Gascon admitted that a two-year sentence in a juvenile facility may have been too short for then-26-year-old trans woman Hannah Tubbs who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl two weeks before her 18th birthday.
But he suspended a lawyer who “abused” the abuser, who later rejoiced at the leniency of the sentence in a secretly recorded prison summons to her father.
Tubbs, 27, who is also charged with molesting another minor, was charged with murder in May this year in connection with a 2019 murder.
Lawyers for Lanez (left) claimed his crime warranted probation, but Gascon (right) pushed for a 13-year prison sentence
Still, the district attorney was determined to show no mercy to Lanez as the rapper faced trial in one of the most high-profile cases to come to court this year.
In her emotional testimony at trial, Megan, 28, told the jury that on July 12, 2020, she and Lanez — with whom she had had a sexual relationship — went to a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house and in his SUV in the Hollywood Hills with Kelsey Harris as an alcohol-fueled argument erupted.
Megan – real name Megan Pete – asked the driver to stop the car and she got out, then she said Lanez yelled ‘Dance b***h’ and fired a gun at her five times, injuring her feet like that that they need surgery.
She testified in court that Lanez offered her and Harris a million dollars to keep quiet about the shooting and asked them not to report him because he was already “on probation.”
Hannah Tubbs laughed at her two-year sentence in a juvenile detention center for assaulting a 10-year-old girl, but Gascon suspended prosecutor Shea Sanna for “abusing” the abuser as a man
Megan also said that Lanez later apologized and claimed he was drunk at the time of the shooting.
Lanez was found guilty of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, firing a firearm in a grossly negligent manner, and carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
Following his sentencing on Tuesday, Gascon insisted the case “highlighted the myriad ways our society needs to do better for women.”
“Thank you Deputy District Attorneys Kathy Ta and Alex Bott, and Victim Support Representative Cecilia Zamora who have worked countless hours to ensure justice is done.”