Deputy District Attorney Shawn Randolph‘s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, filed Tuesday, seeks unspecified damages. A representative for the District Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
At the time of Gascón’s election, Randolph was the head prosecutor in charge of the District Attorney’s Office’s Juvenile Division, in which she supervised about 50 lawyers and 50 civilian workers, the suit states. On Feb. 1, she was transferred the parole division, a “dead-end position for a head deputy,” the suit states. Randolph was denied transfers to head the District Attorney’s branch offices in Torrance and Long Beach Superior Courts even though she was the most qualified applicant for each position, the suit states.
After Gascón was sworn into office Dec. 7, he released numerous directives, including a policy that, among other things, mandated that Randolph use alternative theories of prosecution that minimized a juvenile’s criminal conduct, no matter how violent the offenses, the suit states.
“In essence, plaintiff was directed not to file strike offenses against juveniles and this directive creates a false and misleading description to the court of the crimes that were actually committed,” the suit states.
If a 16- or 17-year-old juvenile robbed a victim by putting a gun to the victim’s head, Randolph could not prosecute the juvenile for robbery because that is a strike offense, the suit states. Randolph was directed to instead file against the juvenile for a lesser crime such as assault by using force that is likely to cause great bodily injury, according to the suit. The ability of a prosecutor to file a strike offense such as robbery has a deterrent effect because if the juvenile commits another serious or violent felony as an adult, his or her sentence can be doubled, the suit states.
“Gascón’s policy effectively required prosecutors to unlawfully hide the truth from the courts by mischaracterizing many violent offenses,” the suit states.
The directive also mandated that Randolph could not file any enhancements for egregious violent conduct, according to the suit. Randolph repeatedly disclosed to her superiors that juvenile petitions made under Gascón’s policy were not truthful and that filing such petitions before a court violates the ethical and statutory duties of a prosecutor, the suit states.
Randolph additionally complained that under Gascón’s directive, violent juvenile murderers could not be tried as adults and that Gascón violated the law by refusing to permit the victims’ family any input into the decision not to try them as adults, the suit states. In one case, a 17-year-old boy allegedly killed his 16-year-old girlfriend and her sister, then set their apartment on fire attempting to cover up the crimes, the suit states. Under Gascón’s directive, the juvenile could not be tried as an adult and would be released from custody when he turns 25 years old, according to the suit.
“Gascón’s directive deprived the victims’ grieving family from any input or comments concerning the murderer’s release from custody at age 25,” the suit states.
Although Gascón later met with the family of the slain girls, the session was “an empty gesture” because Gascón had said he would not reverse the directive,” the suit states.
In February, Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, a 15-year veteran of the district attorney’s office, filed a legal claim against Gascon, Los Angeles County and Max Szabo, Gascon’s spokesman, for defamation, libel, racial discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The claim alleges Gascon said on a podcast before the election, “Some people will be unhappy and, like, either become internal terrorists or they’ll leave. And I know certainly how to deal with both.”
Hatami, of Middle East descent, says calling him a terrorist is racist and discriminatory.
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Colleen S Thompson says
Gascon is a radical who is eager to appease the minorities, who allege profiling and wrongful or harsh prosecution, and longer sentences, due to ‘systemic racism.’ California is home to an awful lot of just plain guilty criminals and assorted thugs and it is my belief that a majority of them were getting what was coming to them. I also believe Gascon is in office because of all of the county offenders’ families who would like to see their jailbirds released a.s.a.p.
The guy has a shady professional record and in the midst of all the hoopla over BLM and the defund the police crowd, his type usually needs the hype and the press to assuage his own ego…but he does it at our expense. It is not ‘reform’ that he is demonstrating. It is a grotesque sort of institutional extremist experiment that perhaps he feels he needs to conduct, even with the high unlikelihood of measurable reform or success as a result. He is a very dangerous person heading up a vital part of the courts and justice system.
Ikwiata says
Colleen, you seem to be an angry, mean spirited and revengeful person, who is in denial of the injustice system. The ongoing evidence is there, the studies and research have been done and continues to show systemic racism in the injustice system. It’s called THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.
Retaliation says
“Hatami, of Middle East descent, says calling him a terrorist is racist and discriminatory.”
And that is coming from a Cuban immigrant.
Tim Scott says
Lawyers filing lawsuits…who would ever have expected such a turn of events?
Concerned citizen says
Gascon is a total puppet and the DAs are chained from doing their jobs. Very low morale and extremely disgruntled. No charges for criminals, no remorse or empathy for real victims, but felony political charges and misleading headlines for public officials, cops, doctors, and teachers. I don’t know how everyone isn’t collectively seeing it.
Tim Scott says
Because apparently a lot of people didn’t think the DA’s office was full of people “doing their jobs.” The people elected Gascon on a promise to reform the DA’s office because apparently a majority believed there was corruption, not people “doing their jobs.”
So, yeah, no surprise that those people are disgruntled and have very low moral. Change is hard. Whether Gascon is the right person to make the right changes only time will tell, but let’s not pretend the DA’s office was some sort of bastion of justice before he got there, because if it had been he wouldn’t be there.
The DA’s office maintained a list of cops that they KNEW had lied on the witness stand. The purpose of the list was to make sure that if those cops were called as witnesses in the future the situation could be assessed for pitfalls that might catch them if they were lying again. No effort to address the injustice suffered by the victims of the perjury. No effort to clean up these “few bad apples” (pro tip: it wasn’t just a few) in law enforcement. The only concern was how it might impact the rate at which the DA’s office successfully completed prosecutions…whether the targets of those prosecutions were in fact guilty not an important consideration apparently.
That kind of behavior is a stain on EVERY assistant DA, every staff member, everyone. And of course those so stained are upset by a “reform movement” initiated not by Gascon, but by the voters who elected Gascon.