(Headline USA) Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has been reportedly retaliating against prosecutors in his office who have protested his soft-on-crime policies.
A large number of prosecutors in Los Angeles County have come out against Gascon in recent weeks, arguing that his policies have made it impossible for them to do their jobs. In fact, the Association of Deputy District Attorneys revealed this week that 97% of their lawyers supported a recall of Gascon. More than 83% of the union’s members participated in the vote.
Some of Gascon’s most vocal critics are in the DA’s Major Crimes Division.
In response, Gascon is trying to disband this unit, according to Richard Sinee, an attorney for the ADDA.
“I have been advised that you and members of your staff are contemplating disbanding the Major Crimes Division,” Shinee wrote in a letter to Gascon dated Feb. 22, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Even more perplexing than the contemplation of dissolving the Division is the stated rationale for doing so,” Shinee added. “I am told that you are shuttering the Division for the express purpose of retaliating against individual members of the Unit.”
Shinee warned Gascon that he would face a lawsuit of his own if he continued his retaliatory behavior.
“It would, indeed, be a stunning event if the chief prosecutor for the County of Los Angeles acted in violation of state law to retaliate against employees for exercising their lawful rights, and in the process, undermined public safety by eliminating a Division with such a stellar reputation,” the letter said.
Gascon has also transferred several attorneys who he sees as disloyal to assignments in courts along the outer perimeter of Los Angeles, sources inside his office said.
“I just don’t know what else he can do to destroy a great office and endanger public safety — he has already done that,” former District Attorney Steve Cooley said.
“This, on top of disbanding the highly effective gang division, is an insult to the prior elected DAs who built that great office,” he said.
