When certainly one of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s prime advisors was charged with 11 felonies final month, his critics had been fast to pounce.
Although Gascón himself has not been charged with any wrongdoing, the case in opposition to Assistant Dist. Atty. Diana Teran has set off the newest in a seemingly infinite wave of controversies for the embattled progressive as he seeks a second time period.
Teran is accused of improperly downloading confidential police information in 2018 — whereas she was the constitutional policing advisor to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Division — after which making improper use of that knowledge when she joined the D.A.’s workplace in 2021.
The D.A.’s detractors have described the costs as additional proof of Gascón’s mismanagement of the nation’s largest prosecutor’s workplace, arguing Teran was certainly one of many outdoors hires he mustn’t have made. Gascón’s November election opponent, Nathan Hochman, pointed to the costs as an indictment of Gascón’s decision-making and questioned if the D.A. “blessed” the alleged misconduct.
Gascón’s allies and a few authorized consultants, nevertheless, have cried foul, questioning whether or not California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta overstepped and is successfully punishing Teran for finishing up the D.A.’s police accountability agenda.
State prosecutors haven’t specified what paperwork Teran allegedly took or what she did with them, leaving an info vacuum. Teran shouldn’t be due in court docket till July, and the affidavit that might lay out extra about her alleged actions was filed below seal, that means readability on the costs shouldn’t be imminent.
Teran’s protection lawyer, James Spertus, mentioned his consumer is being prosecuted for importing the data to a database of regulation enforcement officers whose credibility might be known as into query at trial. The database is usually known as a “Brady Listing” in reference to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court docket resolution.
The paperwork used, Spertus instructed The Occasions, both stem from instances through which deputies appealed disciplinary findings in public civil lawsuits, or had been made public by way of California’s landmark police transparency regulation, SB 1421, in 2019.
Ex-Sheriff Alex Villanueva paints a way more nefarious image. After Teran was charged final month, Villanueva claimed on social media that she had downloaded “about 2400 personnel recordsdata,” largely for the needs of amassing grime on him and his allies within the months earlier than his election in 2018. Villanueva mentioned taking these information would have been unlawful except she had the permission of then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who declined to remark when reached by The Occasions.
Just a few months after Villanueva took workplace and came upon in regards to the “huge knowledge breach,” he mentioned, a number of prime division officers met with the FBI and the state lawyer common’s workplace to convey their considerations.
One of many individuals at that assembly in early 2019 was Villanueva’s former chief of workers, Larry Del Mese, in keeping with a transcript of testimony in an unrelated case, which confirmed dialogue of allegations that greater than a dozen individuals improperly downloaded recordsdata about Villanueva and several other of his supporters.
Del Mese testified that federal and state authorities instructed the Sheriff’s Division they weren’t concerned about pursuing the matter. It stays unclear whether or not the present fees contain those self same recordsdata, because the felony criticism in opposition to Teran doesn’t determine the deputies whose file she allegedly used.
The case is a headache Gascón doesn’t want as he gears up for a tricky re-election struggle in opposition to Hochman. And with the costs coming from Bonta, a fellow progressive elected on the same reform platform, Gascón can’t simply parry criticisms as bitter grapes from conservatives.
Teran had oversight of a number of the workplace’s most advanced instances, together with the Justice Methods Integrity Division, which prosecutes regulation enforcement officers.
Teran is not the “assistant district lawyer over ethics and integrity operations,” in keeping with district lawyer’s workplace spokeswoman Venusse Dunn, who declined to remark additional on Teran’s job standing.
A high-ranking district lawyer’s workplace supply mentioned Teran has been positioned on administrative go away. The supply spoke on the situation of anonymity with the intention to focus on a confidential personnel matter.
Requires an investigation into the instances Teran dealt with are mounting.
“Now that Teran is dealing with jail time, what steps has or will the district lawyer take to make sure that her alleged wrongdoing didn’t infect extra issues than these referenced within the A.G.’s criticism?” wrote Ryan Ehrlich, vp of the union that represents rank-and-file prosecutors, in an open letter. “Will there be a top-to-bottom evaluate of her work? Will that evaluate be inner or exterior? Who will run it?”
It doesn’t seem any such evaluate is coming. Dunn mentioned there may be “no indication that the D.A.’s discovery compliance system was compromised nor points with any submitting resolution.”
Dunn additionally mentioned Teran doesn’t have remaining say on any charging choices.
Even so, Teran is influential in evaluations of instances involving sheriff’s deputies. A civil lawsuit filed final yr accuses her of delaying the announcement of a choice to not prosecute a number of deputies as a result of it may need affected Villanueva’s failed 2022 reelection marketing campaign. Teran has not commented on the swimsuit, which is pending.
In an interview, Hochman puzzled if Gascón employed Teran as a result of he knew she had entry to such supplies.
“Did he deliver her on to explicitly reap the benefits of the unlawful downloads that she had already executed within the Sheriff’s Division?” Hochman requested, acknowledging he had no direct information or proof to assist that suggestion. “It’s both an indictment of his judgment, that he could be keen to danger bringing somebody like this on and placing them answerable for police prosecutions … or maybe it means he’s keen to double down and bless or condone these unlawful acts as nicely.”
Gascón’s chief of workers, Tiffiny Blacknell, dismissed Hochman’s assertion, saying Teran was employed for her “unparalleled experience within the difficult processes of regulation enforcement transparency, to which she’s devoted her profession and is among the many finest at what she does.”
Hochman went on to argue that the workplace must evaluate any case the place Teran may “have tainted the D.A.’s evaluate course of.” Her actions, he mentioned, may have additionally affected instances through which the “Brady materials” she allegedly introduced over was used to question a deputy’s testimony at trial.
Although Hochman and different Gascón critics have been fast to blast Teran, authorized consultants have approached Bonta’s submitting resolution with skepticism.
“It’s actually laborious to know whether or not that is authentic or not with out studying extra particulars,” mentioned Jonathan Abel, an skilled on Brady materials and affiliate professor on the College of California School of the Legislation in San Francisco. “One of many points you’re seeing is that there’s a lot knowledge on the market as of late and lots of people have entry to it and there can actually be complicated guidelines about sharing it. It’s very attainable that somebody could make a mistake.”
Hanni Fakhoury, a San Francisco protection lawyer with a background in pc crimes, mentioned the cost in opposition to Teran is California’s analog to the federal Pc Fraud and Abuse Act. Based mostly on the few info Bonta’s workplace has made public, Fakhoury described the submitting as “bizarre” and making use of a “novel idea.”
“If what they’re saying is she made a replica three years in the past after which held on to it … I’m not seeing it. I’ve quite a lot of questions on that idea,” Fakhoury mentioned. “Not solely does it not sound like a criminal offense, it doesn’t sound just like the type of crime the pc hacking statute would criminalize.”
The felony criticism alleges Teran dedicated all 11 felonies on April 26, 2021. On the time, Gascón was pushing to enhance the workplace’s Discovery Compliance Unit, asking each regulation enforcement company in L.A. County to supply the names of officers and deputies with disciplinary histories which may have an effect on their credibility as witnesses. This “Brady compliance” was among the many subjects Teran was employed to advise on in early 2021.
In June of that yr, The Occasions reported that greater than 40 county companies had failed to adjust to Gascón’s request, together with the Sheriff’s Division.
Six months out from the overall election between Hochman and Gascón, it’s unclear what, if any, impression the controversy can have. Some have taken the submitting as a political betrayal since Bonta endorsed Gascón in 2020 and defeated Hochman within the 2022 lawyer common’s race. Hochman has referred to Bonta as certainly one of Gascón’s “largest supporters.” Bonta has not endorsed Gascón within the present cycle.
Roy Behr, a political guide who has suggested on dozens of Los Angeles-based races, mentioned the info of the Teran case may be too advanced for an election hyper-focused on perceptions of crime and public security. Except Gascón had been to be implicated in Teran’s alleged crimes, Behr believes the incumbent has greater obstacles to his reelection bid.
“The individuals who need to beat him are specializing in the supposed improve in crime and anarchy in Los Angeles, they usually need to tag him with that. And that may be a very highly effective message. It’s the first purpose that he’s doubtlessly susceptible,” Behr mentioned. “I’m not saying it’s insignificant, I’m saying it’s comparatively minor in comparison with the larger drawback for Gascón.”
Occasions workers writers Richard Winton and Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.
