Newly Elected LA County DA to Focus on Overturning Gascon’s General Progressive Politics – Daily News

Newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has been listening intently for more than a year – to frustrated prosecutors, law enforcement and wronged crime victims.

And now, in just over two weeks, he plans to incorporate their views as he quickly moves the nation’s largest local prosecutor’s office beyond what he describes as current District Attorney George Gascón’s “failed social experiment.”

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor elected in a landslide victory on Tuesday, Nov. 5, is vowing to immediately eliminate the blanket anti-refoulement policies embraced by his progressive predecessor. That includes Gascón’s most controversial directives, which prohibit prosecutors from charging juveniles as adults, filing sentence enhancements, seeking the death penalty, participating in parole and requesting cash bail for defendants charged with misdemeanors and non-violent crimes.

But Hochman insists that doesn’t mean all of Gascón’s ideas were wrong.

Rather, he plans to take a “hard middle” approach to justice, eschewing political ideologies and giving prosecutors the authority to thoughtfully analyze each case individually while focusing on justice and accountability for defendants, victims and victims’ families.

“The hard middle looks at every case differently,” he said in an interview with the Southern California News Group. “You have to work within the (legal) system and respect everyone’s rights.”

Nationwide, progressive “reform” candidates lost in 13 of the last election’s top 25 district attorney races — even in liberal strongholds, according to New York Post.

The results suggest that even Democrats wanted to move on from what they perceived as Gascón’s soft-on-crime policies. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, is winning Los Angeles County by 33 percentage points in her failed race against President-elect Donald Trump, but Gascón is losing by 20 points to Hochman.

The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Hochman’s plans for his administration.

Optimism, pessimism

Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said prosecutors are encouraged by Hochman’s plans. “We hope that this approach will allow us to resolve cases in a more equitable manner to best suit the defendant, the victim, the crime and the circumstances,” she said.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 9,000 sworn LAPD officers, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that communities and crime victims “paid a high price” for Gascón’s “experiment.”

“The nightmare is over,” the post read. “Now there is hope that we can return personal accountability to the criminal justice system.”

Larry Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, said he doesn’t believe Hochman will have much success shaking up the status quo.

“The study shows that there is actually very little evidence that selecting tough-on-crime prosecutors has much of an effect on crime,” said Rosenthal, himself a former federal prosecutor. “I see no particular reason to believe that Los Angeles County is about to be an exception.”

Rosenthal also expects Hochman to seek longer prison terms in more cases than Gascón, which could lead to higher taxes.

“In the end, it requires California taxpayers to pay very high costs to house elderly prisoners and their medical care,” he said. “Prosecutors are rarely held accountable for the fact that 20 or 30 years from now taxpayers are saddled with very large costs.”

Gascón chosen as pioneer

Gascón’s sweeping directives, introduced upon his inauguration in 2020, became a focal point of his administration — and its Achilles’ heel.

Progressives heralded Gascón as a trailblazer, while at least two dozen deputy district attorneys sued him, alleging they faced retaliation for defying orders they considered illegal. Gascón also received votes of no confidence from elected officials in several Los Angeles County cities and fended off two recall attempts that failed to gather enough valid petition signatures.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance, a non-profit organization that advocates for reform-oriented prosecutorial changes and policy solutions, urged Hochman to reconsider rescinding Gascón’s directives.

“Now that the campaign is over, we hope the new DA will carefully examine the work and not make drastic withdrawals,” DeBerry said in an email. “A look at the data will show that limiting extreme sentencing is good for public safety and for taxpayers. DA-elect Hochman committed to a balanced approach and a sweeping rollback will not achieve this goal.”

Reforms detailed

Hochman maintains that while Gascón considers himself an ardent progressive, he has not advanced policies that reasonably serve all parts of the criminal justice system.

“To create real and effective criminal justice reform, we need to create progress for all people in the system,” said Hochman, who noted that Gascón proposed some good ideas but executed them poorly.

Hochman, who served as assistant U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush’s administration and as president of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, opposes mass incarceration and recognizes that prison is not appropriate for every defendant. He said some low-level offenders could benefit more from community service or diversion programs.

However, Hochman has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to the fentanyl crisis, vowing to aggressively prosecute and seek long prison terms for “poisoners” who by 2023 were responsible for 1,970 deaths in Los Angeles County.

Hochman has also promised a comprehensive campaign to educate middle and high school students and parents about the deadly threat of fentanyl, said he will aggressively prosecute smash-and-grab robbers and plans to restore the Hardcore Gang Unit in the District Attorney’s Office, which Gascón dissolved in 2021.

As for the death penalty, Hochman said it should only be sought in the rarest of cases, such as police officer killings, school massacres and deadly terrorist attacks.

He said he may also request that the court allow more time to review the high-profile case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who have spent more than 30 years in prison for the 1989 murders of their parents, ahead of a Gascón-backed retention. hearing next month.

Will not hire public defenders

Hochman said that unlike Gascón, he will not hire lawyers from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. “I will do my best to bring in people with the most experience and the highest level of integrity and leadership skills and then use those skills in the most beneficial way possible,” he added.

Earlier this week, Hochman named veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor Steve Katz, whom he has known for more than 40 years, as his chief of staff. Katz, who joined the District Attorney’s Office in 1990, will be responsible for overseeing all operations.