Newly elected LA County DA to focus on overturning Gascon’s blanket progressive policies – Daily News
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Newly elected LA County DA to focus on overturning Gascon’s blanket progressive policies – Daily News

Newly elected Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman has been listening intently for more than a year – to frustrated prosecutors, police officers and abused crime victims.

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

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor elected in a landslide victory on Tuesday, Nov. 5, is vowing to immediately eliminate the public policies aimed at deportation adopted by his progressive predecessors. That includes Gascón’s most controversial directive, which bans prosecutors from charging youth as adultsfile sentencing enhancements, seek the death penalty, attend parole hearings, and request cash bail for defendants charged with misdemeanor and nonviolent crimes.

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

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

“The hard middle looks at each 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.”

Statewide, 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 unsuccessful 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 more fairly, 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 heavy price” for Gascón’s “experiment.”

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

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

“The research shows that there is actually very little evidence that the selection of tough criminal prosecutors has a large effect on crime,” said Rosenthal, himself a former federal prosecutor. “I see no particular reason to believe that Los Angeles County is about to become an exception.”

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

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

Gascón chosen as trailblazer

Gascón’s sweeping directive, introduced at his inauguration in 2020, became a focal point for his administration — and its Achilles’ heel.

Progressives heralded Gascón as a trailblazer, while at least two dozen assistant district attorneys sued him, claiming they faced retaliation for defying orders they considered illegal. Gascón also received votes of no confidence from elected officials in many cities in Los Angeles County, fending off two revoke attempt which failed to collect enough valid signatures.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for reform-oriented changes to prosecutors and policy solutions, urged Hochman to reconsider overturning Gascón’s directive.

“Now that the campaign is over, we are hopeful that 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 has committed to a balanced approach and a sweeping rollback will not achieve that goal.”

Reforms detailed

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

“To bring about real and effective criminal justice reform, we have to create progress for all people in the system,” said Hochman, who has 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 acknowledges that prison is not appropriate for all defendants. 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 fentanyl crisis, vows to aggressively prosecute and seek long prison terms for “poisoners” who in 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 robbers and plans to reinstate the Hardcore Gang Unit in the District Attorney’s Office as Gascón dissolved year 2021.

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

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

Will not hire public defenders

Hochman said that, unlike Gascón, he will not be hiring lawyers from Los Angeles County Public Defense Authority. “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.