Sixty-five current and former elected prosecutors from across the nation filed a legal brief on Friday, Jan. 15, in support of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and his authority to enact new legal policies.
The district attorneys and attorneys general – including former Los Angeles County DAs Gil Garcetti and Ira Reiner – are listed in the friend-of-the-court brief for a civil case.
That Los Angles Superior Court lawsuit, filed by the Los Angeles County prosecutors’ union in December, asks the court to halt some of Gascón’s new directives, namely the elimination of some sentencing enhancements, including those for gang affiliations and the so-called three-strikes law. Such enhancements can add time to defendants’ sentences.
Those listed in the brief say these decisions are well within his authority as a district attorney and reflect the will of voters with his November election.
“We are deeply troubled by the attempt by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County to usurp the power of the elected district attorney and use the courts to override the lawful, discretionary policy decisions of an official, chosen by the voters of Los Angeles, to transform the criminal justice system in that community,” the prosecutors wrote.
Throughout his campaign, Gascón championed what he called criminal-justice reforms, which he set in motion during his first days as the head of the nation’s largest district attorney’s office. He aims to reduce the number of people incarcerated by combining shorter sentences with alternative programs.
Almost immediately, his policies received resistance from some of his prosecutors and their union, which represents hundreds of county prosecutors.
Michele Hanisee, president of the county prosecutors’ union, has previously accused Gascon of using his authority to decide what is law and what is constitutional. Some prosecutors said they felt they were violating their ethical principles and state laws by following Gascón’s new policies, Hanisee said.
The lawsuit asks the court to allow the lawyers in Gascon’s office to add special enhancements if warranted.
A spokesman for the prosecutors’ union declined to comment on the brief.
Robert Dugdale, Gascòn’s attorney in the case, also declined to comment. On Friday he filed a response in court that argues the DA’s policies to not pursue sentence enhancements in certain cases doesn’t violate any ethics or duties required by law.
Already, some judges have pushed back against the district attorney’s policies in courtrooms.
In early December in Van Nuys, a judge denied a prosecutor’s request to withdraw sentencing enhancements in a pending case, saying she disagreed with Gascón’s policies.
On Monday, a judge denied a request by Gascón’s prosecutors to dismiss enhancements against a man accused of killing a sheriff’s deputy and another man in 2019. The enhancements in that case could send Rhett Nelson, 31, to prison for life without the possibility of parole if he’s convicted.
Gascón has said his office will no longer pursue life-without-parole sentences, although in the wake of criticism he has said exceptions to his policies will at times be made.
The judge also shipped part of the case back to San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan, who had criticized Gascón’s request to dismiss life-without-parole penalties. Her office will now prosecute five robberies in the San Diego area that Nelson is accused of committing before the two homicides.
The prosecutors listed in the brief say that not all of them agree with Gascón’s new policies, but said they all agree that an elected prosecutor should be able to implement policies for his or her office.
They say Gascón inherited an office that had helped drive up Los Angeles County’s incarceration rates well above the state average with its “tough-on-crime” approach to criminal cases.
“Historically, prosecutorial discretion has too often been used to impose harsher penalties that have particularly impacted people of color and harmed communities, not made them safer,” said Garcetti, the former DA, in a statement.
“DA Gascón made clear – and voters embraced – his intent to reverse that practice,” he said. “While some prosecutors are having difficulty accepting these changes, there is only one elected official in the DA’s Office.”
