The union representing Los Angeles County prosecutors sued its boss, the newly elected district attorney George Gascón, for his attempt to impose judicial reforms.
The lawsuit filed at the LA County Superior Court on Wednesday aims to destroy the Gascón platform, proposing to end its mandate to stop seeking improvements in convictions for previous crimes, including possession of a gun, participation in gangs and violation of the law. of the “three attacks”, which increase sentences when suspects are convicted.
The Los Angeles County District Attorneys’ Association argues in the lawsuit that district attorneys cannot follow the guidelines without violating the state penal code.
“The guidelines violate California law, which imposes on prosecutors a mandatory duty to plead and prove the background to the strike,” the union said in a statement. “Dismissals from these previous ones can only be based on individual circumstances, not on a general policy.”
Gascón said voters in Los Angeles County “embraced” the effort when they elected him.
“This new approach will require some adjustments and tolerance for change,” he said in a statement. “I invite an open and respectful debate based on the facts … However, people spoke, the direction is clear and, in the end, we all want the same things – equal security and justice under the law.”
Gascón, a former deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and a district attorney in San Francisco, was elected in November after running as a reformist and police critic who condemned incumbent Jackie Lacey on the charge of policemen who kill suspects.
In the wake of George Floyd’s national protests, his victory was celebrated by activists who supported his kinder approach to law enforcement.
But the union, which endorsed the hardened Lacey, immediately clashed with Gascón, arguing that its more lenient prosecution policy would lead to an increase in crime.
“Defendant George Gascón, weeks after his appointment as Los Angeles County district attorney, issued Special Directives that are not only radical, but clearly illegal,” the union said in the lawsuit.
State law “requires” the use of appropriate improvements, the process said, and prosecutors cannot be “ordered” to violate it. The union alleges in this lawsuit that Gascón dispatched “agents to monitor prosecutors at their hearings to ensure that they comply” with their directive.
The request is intended to force Gascón to terminate his directive.
He responded to the union’s initial criticism by going back on parts of its mandate: improvements can be requested for hate crimes, crimes against children and the elderly and other allegations that meet its criteria, he said in mid-December.
But Gascón stood firm at the heart of his reform policy, saying that gang improvements and other add-ons don’t reduce recidivism or crime. He said there were more than 100 enhancement possibilities available to prosecutors under California law.
“Excessive incarceration – the practice of sending people to prisons and prisons for a long time – does not increase security,” he said in a statement.