Families of crime victims in Los Angeles County have spoken out against liberal LA County prosecutor George Gascón, who faces a recall effort similar to that faced by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The families said in interviews that aired on “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday that they want the newly elected prosecutor to be removed, telling “Fox News Primetime” host Lawrence Jones that they believe criminal justice reforms de Gascón prioritize criminals rather than their victims.
Jones traveled to Los Angeles to speak with state prosecutors and families affected by Gascón’s policies.
One of those families, that of the murdered Los Angeles County sergeant. Steven Owen asked his killer to face the death penalty, but Gascón banned it.
ARCHIVE – On August 19, 2014, the archival photo released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shows the sergeant. Steven Owen. Owen was shot and killed on October 5, 2016 by a parole convict while responding to a report of theft in Lancaster, California.
((Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department via AP, Archives)
“I have always believed in the justice system, but with my husband not just murdered … executed, this new district attorney turned this justice system that works completely upside down,” said Owen’s wife, Tania, who served the her husband’s side. Jones.
“It takes you back to the scene,” Millie Owen, the sergeant. Owen’s mother said. “We were robbed, stolen from her husband, stolen from a father, stolen from my son and so for this lawyer to do that, it’s like stealing everything again.”
A sniper first shot and wounded Owen before standing on him and injecting four bullets into his body in 2016, according to authorities.
The 53-year-old man was shot while responding to a report of an ongoing theft in an apartment building in Lancaster.
Tania Owen shared her message to other families of crime victims in Los Angeles County.
“I would tell them to be strong, this is not over,” she told Jones. “We still have a voice, we can do something about it. Remember this man.”
LA DA GASCON LEAVE DEATH PENALTY FOR MAN BORN BY KILL POLICE
The recall organizers held a “victim watch” over the weekend to gather the 20 necessary signatures from LA county residents to formally start the recall process.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon speaks after taking an oath during a quasi-virtual ceremony in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, December 7, 2020.
(Bryan Chan / Los Angeles County via AP)
The effort needs to garner just under 600,000 signatures from registered voters in Los Angeles, or 10% of the voters’ list, to force Gascón to run again.
On the day he took office in December, Gascón announced a series of radical changes, including suspending the use of sentence extensions, restricting when prosecutors can arrest defendants without bail, ending the use of the death penalty in LA County and prohibiting the practice of judging minors as adults.
A mother in LA said she feels “sick” after learning that circumstantial charges against three of the men accused of murdering her 20-year-old son and throwing him off a cliff in 2018 were fired in December under the reforms. radicals of Gascón.
Desiree Andrade told Fox 11 Los Angeles that the death of her son, Julian Andrade, left her devastated. Speaking to Jones, an emotional Andrade said: “I never thought that I would ever have to lose a child, to say goodbye to a child.”
“The day I found out what he was doing, I felt it was a slap in the face,” she added.
Investigators said that Julian Andrade was beaten and stabbed several times until he lost consciousness. The suspects, believing he was dead, took him to the mountains in Azusa to get rid of the body. Realizing that he was still alive, the suspects reportedly stepped on his head.
They threw his body off a cliff, according to investigators, but they still heard him fighting. A suspect allegedly went down to attack the 20-year-old again.
The three suspects were charged with special circumstances of lethal weapon, kidnapping and theft – charges that would have put them in life without parole if convicted. With those charges dismissed in court in December, they could be entitled to parole in 20 to 30 years.
Julian Andrade was the father of a 9-month-old child and had a second on the way when he was killed, according to KTLA-TV.
While Andrade held back tears, she told Jones that she “would love” for Gascón to tell her his “justification for all of this”.
“I wake up every day, one child less, every day,” she said. “And every day I have to look my grandchildren in the eye it hurts.”
Jones also spoke with other California district attorneys and even with one of Gascón’s deputies in his own office who are against his policies.
LA County Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami told Jones that criminals “really love the district attorney”
Jones asked Hatami, “Is it typical for a deputy prosecutor to take over your prosecutor?”
“No, it is not typical,” he replied.
Jones went on to ask, “Can you look the victims in LA County in the eyes and tell them they’re okay?”
“I can’t now,” he replied.
“Within minutes of being inducted, he adopted a series of … policies that really are the total abandonment of the rights of crime victims,” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert told Jones. “You can no longer seek the death penalty, you can no longer seek life without the possibility of parole.”
“These policies are dangerous, not just for LA, but for this state and this nation,” said Tulare County district attorney Tim Ward.
Speaking of “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, Jones noted that “people across LA” were affected by Gascón’s policies.
“We cannot allow it to fall that way because it is becoming a model for the country,” said the Fox Nation host. “If we don’t defend the people in LA, it may be that they come to a city near you. In some cases, you already have.”
Gascón declined Fox News’s request for an interview. He said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday that “the pain and trauma of losing a loved one is immeasurable.”
“Although a minority of victims want the maximum punishment imposed on their case, research shows that these views are not shared by most survivors of violent crimes, as most survivors cannot find a cure by putting someone else in a cage,” he continued. he. .
“In addition, studies show that excessive conviction practices have exacerbated recidivism, leading to more crime victims.”
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Gascón continued to write: “Our justice system cannot continue to depend on policies that create more victims tomorrow, simply because a minority of victims want the maximum punishment imposed on their case today.”
Morgan Phillips of Fox News. Stephen Sorace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.