Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has hired a crack team of former defense attorneys for his prosecutor’s office, and some are getting serious criminals out of jail early, sources told The Post.
Experts at the district attorney’s office say the Resentencing Unit, formed in 2021, is now filled with staff who used to be on the opposite side of the court, which they say creates a number of problems.
They also accuse the unit of having been taking capital punishment and life without parole cases and of resentencing defendants without informing victims or their families.
“In a word, it is disgusting,” said a prosecutor who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation.
“That doesn’t mean that all cases are bad or that there aren’t any cases that shouldn’t be resentenced. However, in general, the unit is overseen by former public defenders and its obvious goal is to get people out of prison as quickly as possible.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón in 2021 in Los Angeles. AFP via Getty Images
As of this week, Nancy Theberge, a longtime deputy public defender in Los Angeles County, was named deputy in charge of the Resentencing Unit, according to an internal memo seen by The Post.
Multiple sources told The Post that rank-and-file prosecutors in the resentencing unit are prevented from accessing an inmate’s entire file and are only given certain information before having to argue their cases before a judge.
“The bottom line is that you are supposed to advocate professionally and ethically and never mislead a court, and what some of these people are doing is just that,” a third source said.
“It is misleading, because they do not give the relevant information and the judges are used to prosecutors being ethical and giving them the correct information.
Members of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office (from left): Alisa Blair, Tiffany Blacknell, District Attorney George Gascón and Shelan Y. Joseph. Courtesy of the District Attorney’s Office Tiffany Blacknell, Gascón’s communications director and special counsel, made headlines after social media posts resurfaced from 2019 saying, “Prison is obsolete. “We need to reimagine America without him.”
“So if you don’t have a strong judge saying, ‘Wait a second, what’s the context here?’ Why is this returned for resentencing? They could also just assume and say, ‘Okay, it’s a prosecutor filing the motion, so it must be legitimate,’ when the reality is that they’re not even real prosecutors.
“Even if they are by title, they are working in a unit whose mission is to help free people.”
Gascón’s office declined to comment when approached by The Post about this story.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, explained that Gascón’s decision to recruit former public defenders and defense attorneys into his resentencing unit could be problematic, especially if they had previously been involved in the cases that were being re-evaluated. .
“You might think they would have a better understanding of how being sentenced affects people.
“But now they have different roles. As a public defender, his goal was to do everything he could to help his clients… 1697868591 What we want is for them to evaluate these cases fairly and not get stuck in a role prior to their arrival at the district attorney’s office,” he warned.
Joseph Iniguez with Gascón.Facebook / Joseph Iniguez
The Post has found at least a dozen former public defenders and defense attorneys now working in various departments of the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office.
Tiffany Blacknell, communications director and special advisor to Gascón, made headlines after social media posts from 2019 resurfaced that said: “Prison is obsolete. “We need to reimagine America without him.” In another post, she is seen wearing a t-shirt printed with the words “The police are trained to kill us.”
Diana Terán, who worked in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office on police accountability matters, was hand-picked by Gascón and now heads the district attorney’s support operations.
Alisa Blair, who worked on Gascón’s campaign and was his political advisor, also came from the public defender’s office.
Days after George Floyd was killed by police officers in 2020 and riots broke out in Los Angeles and other parts of the country, Blair posted on social media: “Burn that sh*t down. We must destroy to rebuild.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna (right) watches as Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón makes an announcement regarding charges in the murder of Deputy Sheriff Ryan Clinkunbroomer at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles on September 20, 2023. Clinkunbroomer’s family, photographed behind Gascón, said they were surprised when the prosecutor announced he would only seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole against the shooter. AP
Blair has since left the district attorney’s office and is listed as a professor at the University of California, Irvine.
Sources told The Post that Terán and Gascón’s chief of staff, Joseph Iniguez, also a former public defender, have played a “pivotal” role in promoting policies that prohibit prosecutors from attending parole hearings.
When he took office, Gascón instituted a policy that prosecutors were no longer allowed to attend parole hearings, so victims and their families no longer had a representative to speak on their behalf at hearings. of parole and, sources say, information about when an inmate on parole is not passed on to victims’ families.
“We can’t oppose parole no matter what,” a source in the district attorney’s office previously told The Post.
District Attorney George Gascon attends the 40th annual Long Beach Pride Parade on August 6, 2023 in Long Beach, California.Getty Images
Gascón created the resentencing unit in April 2021 after state law dictated that certain cases would be reevaluated, including cases involving incarcerated people age 50 or older, those who have been sentenced to 20 years or more and those who are serving sentences for not having committed crimes. serious or non-violent crimes.
Prosecutors also previously told The Post that those who speak out have been subject to retaliation, with some allegedly sent to other assignments often below their level of experience.
To date, there are lawsuits from at least 20 prosecutors against Gascón, all of whom claim to have been retaliated against for speaking out about their progressive policies.
Gascón, 69, born in Cuba, took office in Los Angeles in 2020 after eight years serving as San Francisco district attorney. He has been divisive from the start and has survived two attempts to remove him from office.
Several prosecutors have filed to run against Gascón in March 2024. The list includes former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nathan Hochma, Deputy U.S. Attorney John McKinney, Deputy U.S. Attorney Jonathan Hatami, Senior Deputy U.S. Attorney Maria Ramirez and Eric Siddall, who was the vice president. President of the Association of Deputy Prosecutors.
Desiree Andrade (left), whose 20-year-old son, Julian Andrade, was murdered in 2018, speaks at a news conference with supporters of an effort to recall Los Angeles District Attorney Gascón on December 6, 2021, in Los Angeles California. . fake images
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