Earlier this yr, high-level officers within the Los Angeles Police Division requested for a gathering with metropolis prosecutors to debate a supply of friction between their two workplaces.
Los Angeles Metropolis Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto had been pushing for legal costs towards a person she suspected was among the many pro-Palestinian protesters who sprayed crimson paint and set off smoke gadgets outdoors the Brentwood house of a distinguished Jewish civic chief, in response to a memo summarizing the March 7 assembly.
Feldstein Soto had gone to then-Police Chief Michel Moore to say that Ricci Sergienko was concerned within the Thanksgiving Day protest, in response to the memo, a replica of which was reviewed by The Instances.
Nonetheless, Sergienko couldn’t be recognized in video footage from the scene, the LAPD’s lead detective on the case, Amgad Youssef, mentioned on the assembly.
“For causes unknown, the Metropolis Lawyer expressed inordinate curiosity within the progress of a mass protest investigation, going as far as to recommend the identification of a particular particular person for prosecution to the Chief of Police,” wrote Dennis Kong, head deputy for the town legal professional’s regulatory prosecution division, in his memo summarizing the problems raised by the LAPD.
The considerations described within the memo by the LAPD and Feldstein Soto’s personal prosecutors increase questions on why she would have gone to such lengths to single out Sergienko, considered one of her most outspoken critics.
The protest, which sparked outrage at Metropolis Corridor and a hate crime investigation by the LAPD, occurred outdoors the house of legal professional Michael Tuchin, president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. He donated $1,500 to Feldstein Soto’s marketing campaign in 2022.
Feldstein Soto didn’t reply to emailed questions concerning the memo, which was dated April 9. Tuchin and Moore, who retired from the LAPD in February, additionally didn’t reply to messages from The Instances.
Kong didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
LAPD officers referred to as for the March 7 assembly to boost considerations with Feldstein Soto’s subordinates that their boss had accused the LAPD of failing to “diligently” pursue the matter, the memo mentioned. In addition they needed to debate Feldstein Soto’s “explicit curiosity and sense of urgency in charging Sergienko.”
On the assembly, the contingent from the town legal professional’s workplace assured LAPD officers — together with Assistant Chief Blake Chow and Deputy Chief David Kowalski of the Counter-Terrorism and Particular Operations Bureau — that they didn’t share their boss’ considerations with the progress of the investigation.
In his memo, Kong mentioned the town legal professional’s workplace pursues costs “based mostly on possible trigger and never politics” — and that it appeared that Feldstein Soto could have implicated Sergienko to the LAPD “with out such trigger.”
Feldstein Soto “unilaterally” contacted the LAPD to supply her opinion a few potential suspect “with out information concerning the state of the proof,” and with out notifying her workplace’s legal department, Kong wrote.
Sergienko is an organizer with the leftist political group Individuals’s Metropolis Council. He has taken half in protests at Metropolis Corridor and elsewhere, together with candidate debates and the properties of elected metropolis officers. The Individuals’s Metropolis Council has been a longstanding foe of Feldstein Soto, calling her “corrupt” and accusing her of doing the bidding of particular pursuits.
The group has additionally posted excerpts from Feldstein Soto’s decade-old divorce case on social media, together with a submitting from her ex-husband describing her conduct as “weird.”
Colleen Flynn, Sergienko’s legal professional, mentioned she was “floored” by Feldstein Soto’s conduct as described within the April 9 memo. Flynn mentioned Feldstein Soto is “uncontrolled,” abusing her energy and going after Sergienko due to his political opinions.
“I hope that the town legal professional does the suitable factor and instantly resigns, as a result of that is utterly unacceptable for a first-class metropolis,” she mentioned.
An inner memo mentioned Los Angeles Metropolis Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto, pictured in 2022, pushed for costs towards a protester. That protester is considered one of her most outspoken critics.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Feldstein Soto lately launched her marketing campaign for a second time period heading an workplace that prosecutes misdemeanors, defends the town towards lawsuits and drafts laws.
Since taking workplace in December 2022, she has confronted criticism over her choice to sue a journalist who lawfully obtained headshots of Los Angeles law enforcement officials from the town. The Metropolis Council voted Friday to pay $300,000 to settle that case.
The memo, and the obvious effort by Feldstein Soto’s prosecutors to distance themselves from her actions, are the most recent indicators of stress inside the metropolis legal professional’s workplace. At the very least 4 staffers have filed retaliation claims towards the workplace this yr.
Sean C. Tyler, an administrative coordinator, prompt in a July 26 submitting that Feldstein Soto had tried to make use of the legal justice system to “silence” Sergienko. In his submitting, Tyler questioned whether or not Feldstein Soto gave Tuchin favorable remedy as a result of he was a marketing campaign donor. Tyler additionally accused her of secretly studying staff’ emails.
Final week, an aide to Feldstein Soto referred to as Tyler’s allegations “flamboyant” and mentioned there is no such thing as a fact to them.
Youssef, the LAPD detective, referred The Instances to the LAPD’s press workforce, which declined to debate the state of affairs.
“The case in query continues to be with the Metropolis Lawyer’s Workplace for evaluate and submitting consideration,” Det. Meghan Aguilar mentioned in an e mail.
In 2022, earlier than Feldstein Soto was elected, the town legal professional’s workplace filed costs towards Sergienko after he and different protesters disrupted a Los Angeles Metropolis Council assembly. Sergienko was charged with resisting arrest and battery on an officer, amongst different issues. Final yr, a choose allowed Sergienko and one other defendant to take part in a diversion program.
When the case was dismissed, Sergienko posed for a photograph within the courthouse together with his center finger prolonged. The Individuals’s Metropolis Council posted the picture on social media with a vulgarity aimed toward Feldstein Soto.
Final fall, the Individuals’s Metropolis Council posted movies of the Thanksgiving Day protest on the social platform X, calling it a “vacation get up name” for Tuchin and his household. Protesters against Israel’s battle in Gaza left bundles of white material spattered with crimson paint to signify blood-spattered infants.
In addition they set off smoke gadgets, sprayed crimson paint on the driveway and carried a banner with the message “F— UR HOLIDAY! BABY KILLER.”
Mayor Karen Bass condemned the protest, as did leaders from the town’s Jewish group. Feldstein Soto additionally weighed in, saying on X that trespassing, vandalism and threats towards others “aren’t protected speech and needs to be prosecuted.”
Behind the scenes, she went additional, in response to the memo, telling police she had “positively recognized and acknowledged Sergienko” from surveillance footage of the protest. Feldstein Soto advised her workers that she had had “a number of” communications with the police chief about “Sergienko’s involvement within the protest,” the memo mentioned.
Moore, in flip, requested his subordinates “why Sergienko was not but named as a main suspect for attainable costs,” the memo mentioned.
Flynn, the lawyer representing Sergienko, mentioned she doesn’t know if her consumer was on the protest.
“But when he was, there’s actually nothing in that memo, or from that police investigation, that reveals there was any illegal exercise on his half,” she mentioned. “Due to this fact, her solely motivation to go after him is only political and to attempt to silence his criticism.”
Ricci Sergienko, an organizer with the Individuals’s Metropolis Council, was arrested at a Los Angeles Metropolis Council assembly in 2022. His case was dismissed final month.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Youssef, the LAPD detective, mentioned on the March 7 assembly that Feldstein Soto saved mentioning Sergienko throughout the investigation’s preliminary section, in response to Kong’s memo.
The most effective video footage of the protest confirmed a “random particular person” who was “lined from head to toe,” Youssef advised attendees on the assembly. The LAPD couldn’t place Sergienko on the scene or in any other case positively establish him as a suspect for “inciting public dysfunction and vandalism,” Youssef mentioned, in response to the memo.
Youssef was additionally attempting to make use of cellphone knowledge to establish suspects, the memo mentioned.
If Feldstein Soto was presenting herself as a possible witness within the case or had a stake in it in some way, that may create a battle of curiosity, not only for herself however presumably her prosecution workforce, mentioned Laurie Levenson, a professor of legal legislation at Loyola Regulation Faculty.
Levenson mentioned she was struck by the obvious lack of belief between Feldstein Soto and her prosecutors. The memo, Levenson mentioned, signifies that there’s “a political battle occurring inside her personal workplace.”
Kong addressed his memo to Michelle McGinnis, who was then the workplace’s legal department chief. Two weeks later, McGinnis was positioned on go away and escorted out of the workplace, in response to a declare for damages she filed with the town in June.
In her declare, McGinnis didn’t point out Sergienko by identify. Nonetheless, she accused Feldstein Soto of directing her to prosecute an individual whom Feldstein Soto “believed to be current in a video of protesters” within the West Los Angeles space final yr.
McGinnis mentioned in her declare that Feldstein Soto gave these instructions “based mostly on her private or political opinions, and/or for her private, political achieve.”
An aide to Feldstein Soto broadly disputed most of the allegations in McGinnis’ declare however didn’t present specifics.
