Rudy Paz is a 25-year-old Los Angeles man who prosecutors accuse of sexually abusing children as young as 4 for years, but have no evidence that he continued the abuse after he turned 18.
Therefore, he could face juvenile punishment despite being an adult.
That’s what happened to Hannah Tubbs, a 26-year-old convicted child molester and murderer whose light sentence sought at the direction of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon did not include a requirement to register as a sex offender.
Paz’s victims had been “groomed” for years, according to the attorney for two of their families, Kathleen Cady, and only recently came forward, leading to his arrest as an adult.
“If this case had occurred in any other county, I’m sure it would be in adult criminal court by now,” Cady told Fox News Digital. “But in Los Angeles County it is not. We do not know why. And we don’t know what parameters they would be considering. “It’s nowhere to be found.”
After sparking outrage over his office’s handling of the Tubbs case, Gascon rescinded his blanket policy against transferring any juvenile case to adult court and instead created a panel of hand-picked allies, many of them former defenders. public, to review certain high-profile cases and determine what to do, Cady said.
Hannah Tubbs, when she was cast as James Tubbs, in November 2021.
The problem is that the panel operates out of public view and ignores state law that lists criteria prosecutors and judges must consider when deciding whether to try a juvenile as an adult.
“Their policies are an epic failure, but to me the bigger picture is that their policies lack transparency,” Cady said. “And that’s why the public doesn’t really understand what they mean. And I think he does it deliberately, in an attempt to hide what he is really doing.”
And there is precedent for victims’ fears. Hannah Tubbs, also known as James Tubbs, was sentenced Thursday for beating her friend to death with a rock in a fight over $100. Tubbs spent years in adult prisons in several states when Los Angeles authorities arrested him in 2021 for the 2014 sexual assault of a little girl in a Denny’s bathroom.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Because the crime occurred weeks before Tubbs turned 18, Gascon’s office prosecuted him as a juvenile.
Once in Los Angeles custody, Tubbs began identifying as female and told his father to call him “Hannah” in jailhouse phone calls in which he mocked his child victim and the lenient punishment she expected to face. With this new gender identity, the child molester, who targeted young girls, sought to be housed in a women’s juvenile prison.
A deputy prosecutor who reported Tubbs’ claims was suspended five days without pay for “misgendering” and “gender-naming” him despite evidence that Tubbs’ new gender identity was a ruse.
Shea Senna, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney. Fox News
Gascon’s office also played a role in the early release of Andrew Cachu, a convicted murderer who served only six years of a 50-year prison sentence. Cachu walked free last year after the district attorney’s office refused to present evidence at a hearing to determine whether he should remain in custody after being released from juvenile detention when he turned 25, Fox News Digital reported in that moment.
Only the most serious juvenile crimes are eligible for transfer to adult court, Cady said, including murder and child abuse.
“There are several charges, this went on for a long time, [but] Originally, it would seem that the district attorney’s office didn’t even intend to think about sending this to adult criminal court,” Cady said of the Paz case. “And that has changed. Now, apparently they are at least considering it.”
A transgender woman who bragged about her light sentence for a child abuse crime has now been charged with murder in connection with a 2019 robbery, authorities said Tuesday. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Gascon’s office told Fox News Digital that as of Thursday no decision had been made on whether to transfer the case to adult court.
“A provisional transfer motion was filed in juvenile court at the time the case was filed, pending a final decision on the transfer request,” a spokesperson said. “LADA has established protocols to make appropriate determinations on the transfer request, and the decision in this case progresses through those protocols. A final decision on the transfer is still pending.”
Paz is being held without bail. He is due back in court on December 18.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn