Woke Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has been charged with allowing 10,000 cases to pile up and inducing dozens of prosecutors to stop.
Described as an “authoritarian” and “toxic” manager, Gascon allegedly shooed away talent, demoted top lawyers and fought anyone with opposing views, multiple sources who worked with the prosecutor said New York Post.
Gascon’s “awakened” policy has created public distrust, according to a former LA prosecutor — who said generous plea deals allow criminals to get out of prison without serving time or prevent crimes from being prosecuted at all.
“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.”
“Gascón is so focused on justice for black and brown defendants, but the victims and their families are also black and brown. Where is the justice for them? We are making them victims of criminal law again.’
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has come under fire for his “wake up” policy
Gascon is accused of allowing 10,000 cases to pile up and prompting dozens of prosecutors to stop
Eric Siddall, vice president of the LA County Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said the firm’s reputation has been destroyed.
“People know he’s hostile to his employees,” he said.
“He has an authoritarian leadership style and engages in retaliation against employees who do not share his ideology,” he told The Post.
There are reportedly more than 200 vacancies in the district attorney’s office, with not enough candidates willing to fill them, sources told The Post.
The lack of staff has led to a backlog of up to 10,000 cases.
The prosecution disputed this claim, insisting they have only 139 open positions, blaming the lack of staff on ‘retirement and a previous hiring freeze’ – but did not mention the 10,000 cases yet to be filed.
“During the hiring freeze, our office applied for permission from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to fill vacancies, but that request was denied,” said a source from the LA County DA’s office.
“During this administration, some prosecutors have moved to other jurisdictions, while others have been hired by our office from other jurisdictions.”
The agency argued that there are many reasons why a case is not filed immediately, including the need for further investigation.
“A delay in filing a case does not prevent the public prosecutor from filing a case at a later date, as long as it falls within the statute of limitations,” the OM said.
Former Los Angeles County DA Steve Cooley, who ran the office from 2000 to 2012, told The Post that historically, recruiting wasn’t an issue until Gascon took office.
But the lack of talent doesn’t come as a shock to Cooley.
“I’m not surprised because some of the people he’s brought in are just disgusting people. Who would want to come and work here under such conditions?’ Cooley said.
DA Gascon’s soft-on-crime approach is under fire as violent crimes rise in LA
This is not the first time that Gascon’s staff has spoken out against him.
Nearly 20 cases have been filed by senior members of the prosecutor’s office claiming they have been removed from office for criticizing Gascon’s policies.
LA County Attorney Shawn Randolph was awarded $1.5 million in a lawsuit against Gascon, with more than a dozen similar civil claims filed by other employees.
In Randolph’s case, she argued that Gascon transferred her in retaliation for pushing back on his progressive policies, specifically not charging youths as adults in certain cases.
Gascon denied the allegation, saying the move was a “typical decision made when dealing with a large workforce like the LA County District Attorney’s Office.”
One of the bureau’s top prosecutors, John McKinney, was preparing for the attempted murder of Briana Kupfer in January 2021, when he was suddenly transferred from the elite Major Crimes Unit to oversee felony cases from East LA, an unusual placement for someone who was responsible for high-profile matters.
“I don’t do trials and I supervise two lawyers. The office is that small,” he told De Post. “And because there are only two attorneys, when they go to court, I kind of become that freshman district attorney in the courtroom. So I’m in court three days a week on average, and I’m going back and doing what I did 25 years ago instead of trying complicated murder cases.”
McKinney told The Post he was transferred in retaliation for speaking out against Gascon’s policies.
Last year, a seasoned Los Angeles prosecutor criticized the awakened district attorney for his lenient policies as violent crime in the city has risen eight percent since he took office.
Mark Burnley, who has been with the OM since 1999, condemned his boss in his suicide note in December 2022.
That same month, he suffered another blow because his office took “flagrant special interest” in a case in which singer John Legend nearly had his luxury Porsche stolen.
There has been public outcry this year and many complaints against Gascon’s wake-up policy and soft-on-crime approach.
In February, Gascon suspended a lawyer who had “mismanipulated” a transgender child molester who began identifying as a woman after DNA linked her to a cold case of a man beaten to death in the woods.
Last year, the district attorney ordered prosecutors not to charge immigrants because they could be deported and instead told them to consider non-criminal programs.
Gascon has previously defended his policy decisions, saying that a “tough-on-crime” approach has failed” and that his aim was to “drastically change a system that has served no one, not the victims of crime, not those who be blamed and not the public. .’
But with multiple attempts to recall the leftist prosecutor, many voters disagree. A poll showed that nearly half of Long Beach voters supported a recall of the Progressive DA in 2022, according to a Long Beach Center for Urban Politics and Policy bearing.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney challenges George Gascon in 2024 by running for D.A.
McKinney said he was transferred in retaliation for speaking out against Gascon’s policies
Workers still under the DA feel undervalued as they try to handle the immense workload.
One accuser told The Post, “You have mid-career accusers who do the heavy lifting and are tired of being treated like shit.”
“The problem is that 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.”
Gascon’s term expires in 2024 and he faces an uncertain future in the upcoming elections.
The race to replace Gascon includes Deputy District Attorney John McKinney, Jonathan Hatami and former Assistant US Attorney General Nathan Hochma.