District Attorney Controversies, Gascon's Legal Challenges, and the Three-Strikes Debate

What if a district attorney decided to challenge the very laws they are sworn to uphold? 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you use a gun in commission with a violent crime, we're not going to charge the gun enhancement. If you're part of a gang when you commit a violent crime, we're not going to charge the gang enhancement. You know, if you're the worst of the worst and you're a three-strikes offender, we're not charging the three-strikes cases. Again, if you want to go ahead and enact a social experiment, consult with the very people who are going to implement that for you. He did none of that. He literally imposed these special directives that you were described from up high. Then he watched them not work and then he has the arrogance to not pivot and not go back into to find out. Okay, guys, what's not working? How can we fix this? Let's all work together to get this thing fixed. He has doubled and tripled down on his political ideology, his political agenda, when a DA should only be relying on two things the facts and the law to make decisions.

Speaker 2: 0:56

That's what our bread and butter is. What are the facts that we determine them to be through our investigation and working with our partners in law enforcement, getting to those facts and then looking at it and saying, okay, this is what the law is, and sometimes the law is very specific on what it is that you're supposed to do. I mean, we have a lawsuit the Association of Deputy District Attorneys has a lawsuit pending that is now in front of the Supreme Court on the issue of being directed not to file three strikes cases when the statute actually says that we have to. Now whether we enforce and do the full enforcement of the three strikes. That's where discretion comes in. But I don't think there's any discretion in being and charging it, because that lets the court know the seriousness of the person that the charges are against.

Speaker 1: 1:49

You know, the three strikes policies is a very good example of what of how George Gascon operates. So he comes into office, as you were saying, first day, first hour, first email or first 13 emails, and he eliminates that policy. And again, the three strikes policy. For people who don't know what it is, they're going after the worst of the worst offenders. It means you either committed a violent and serious offense, got convicted, got sentenced, went to jail. That didn't stop you. You did another one, another violent and serious offense, got convicted, got sentenced, went to jail. That didn't stop you. Now you've committed the third one and that's where the penalties keep ratcheting up. So Gascon says I refuse to allow you folks to implement that law, even though that law, when it passed in 1994 and it passed by 70% of the people, says you shall file those type of charges. So your association actually hired myself and my law firm to go and do. I was part of it.

Speaker 1: 2:51

Oh, wow, I didn't realize that that was me. We went into court and we did something that had never been done before. We asked a judge to go ahead and enjoin preliminarily enjoin a DA's policy, because the DA's employees, those deputy district attorneys, said it was illegal. And sure enough, the judge agreed. The judge said Gascon is trying to implement an illegal policy and I'm going to stop him from doing it. And he kept going.

Speaker 1: 3:18

He went to the California Court of Appeals and he said we need to now overturn the judge's ruling. Court of Appeals, and he said we need to now overturn the judge's ruling. And the California Court of Appeals basically slapped his argument in the face and said George Gascon, you are not a sovereign with unreviewable discretion. You, like others, have to follow the law. And kept his plenary injunction. To show you his arrogance. He's now, as you said, taking this to the California Supreme Court. Now, by the way, defense attorneys for 30 years have been trying to overturn the three strikes law. That's their job. They represent the worst of the worst offenders and they, would just assume, have this law thrown off the books by the courts. They have failed. Now we have a prosecutor that is trying to throw out the three strikes law. This is almost well, it's not almost, it's unheard of, and hopefully the California Supreme Court will have the opportunity to once again slap gas on and say you cannot violate the law to enforce it.

Speaker 2: 4:21

Well, if they don't get to that by the time December rolls around, I'm sure that's one of the things that you are going to reverse from these policies that George has done.

Speaker 1: 4:33

That is way up on my list. Actually, if I get the chance to be the DA on that day or soon thereafter, we will send a message to the California Supreme Court that we would just assume them not to consider this case and allow the lower court decision, basically throwing out Gascon's policy, to remain.

Speaker 2: 4:54

And it's interesting, if you do get sworn in, will I get 13 emails within the first minute of you're saying I do.

Speaker 1: 5:02

The first email will be thanking you for all your great support and your great advice. You've been running the asset forfeiture section, the DA's office. It's not only an incredibly important section, I believe it's an underutilized section. I think that if you go ahead interestingly and take people's money and their property when they commit crimes, it sends a very strong message. In fact, sometimes even a stronger message to some people than necessarily putting them through the criminal justice system or putting them even in jail. Putting them through the criminal justice system or putting them even in jail. You know there are many opportunities out there to maximize the use of your section in connection with, again, all the other agencies that are out there trying to bring justice, and I'd be a pleasure and a real great experience to work with you to figure out where the opportunities lie.

Speaker 2: 5:59

And it's interesting because, if you look at some of the statutes, there was one that I had no idea about, but we've had an epidemic of street takeovers and Los Angeles County actually has its own ordinance that allows for the forfeiture of the vehicles of individuals involved in those types of activities, although we've never really figured out a way to utilize it. I don't think there's anything set up within the court and we'd have to set up the whole system, but I actually got a call from somebody in my office, one of the DAs, who was concerned about this and knew about that statute and wanted to know how to do it. So it's definitely an area, especially my section, that could expand, but I've been contracting. I took over on March 31st 2020, which was right smack dab in the middle of the pandemic.