Next Los Angeles prosecutor will go after low-level nonviolent crimes, AP interview says

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles incoming district attorney Nathan Hochman, who works for Los Angeles County, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his first task upon taking office was to dismantle the “overall pro-crime policies” of George Gascón, one of California’s most high-profile progressive prosecutors.

That means restoring gang-related sentencing enhancements, allowing prosecutors to present juvenile charges more freely and prosecutors re-attending parole hearings with victims’ families so they can help defend against the release of convicts, Hochman said.

The former Republican turned independent also plans to return to prosecuting low-level nonviolent crimes, such as criminal threats, trespassing, disturbing the peace and loitering, which he said the current district attorney does not do, often involving people experiencing homelessness.

Anyone who breaks the law will face “proportionate” consequences, Hochman said in an interview Wednesday, and there will be no more “get out of jail free” cards.

He also wants to look at solutions that don’t require incarcerating offenders, such as court-mandated drug treatment, community service and restitution.

“There is a culture of lawlessness that is practiced” by Gascón’s office, Hochman said.

“We’re going to turn this around,” he said. “You’re basically saying: ‘These are the lines in our society, the lines are the laws; I will apply them consistently, fairly and impartially, and here are the real results on the other side. So test me if you want. If you think I’m bluffing, I’m not bluffing.”

Hochman says he doesn’t want to refill prisons.

“My message to people who believe in criminal justice reform is: I believe in it, too,” Hochman said. “The difference between me and my predecessor is that it won’t be talked about too much.”

Hochman’s Nov. 5 victory to become top prosecutor in the nation’s most populous county of 10 million people reflects that growing discontent He is with progressive district attorneys pushing criminal justice reform in California.

Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief, was elected in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, part of a wave of progressive prosecutors elected across the country.

He introduced several controversial changes to the district attorney’s office that were seen by critics as soft on crime, including ending cash bail and not allowing prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults or seek enhanced sentencing. He also touched on the following incident recently: Lyle and Erik Menendezsaying you will trying to get angry For the brothers who were sentenced to life in prison for killing their parents with a shotgun in their Beverly Hills home in 1989. Hochman, who could influence the Menendez case, said he could not comment on the exasperation recommendation until he had time to review confidential documents related to the case. siblings.

Gascón defended his work, saying in his franchise statement: “I am deeply proud of what we have accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities that are, and always will be, the heart of criminal justice reform.”

In 2014, Gascón, then the San Francisco district attorney, co-authored a ballot measure passed by California voters that reclassified some low-level drug and property crimes as misdemeanors instead of felonies. The measure was approved as California spent years fighting a 2009 federal court order to reduce the population of the state’s overcrowded prisons.

But rising property crimes in Los Angeles County are also highlighted by viral videos: smash and grab Retail theft, along with a worsening drug epidemic and rising homelessness, fed the sense of lawlessness and frustration that voters brought to the polls last week.

Prosecutors across the state are now armed with this month’s passage Recommendation 36a ballot measure that would allow them to charge theft and drug possession as felonies after a third offense.

Hochman declined to say whether his office plans to review existing misdemeanor cases to put them in the felony category, but said the ultimate goal is deterrence. Its goal is to return to a year like 2014, which is considered the region’s safest year in the last 50 years.

“I don’t anticipate thousands of people going to jail anymore,” he said. “The aim is ultimately to deter them from committing crimes in the first place. That’s when I’ll realize that I’m actually doing something impactful in the criminal justice system, not filling prisons to breaking point. “This is a failure of the system.”

With just over two weeks until he takes office and taking over a department of more than 700 prosecutors, Hochman spent a recent morning this week observing “homeless court” in Hermosa Beach, a city south of Los Angeles.

The program, which started in the coastal city of Redondo Beach, gives people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to avoid prosecution for nonviolent misdemeanor charges or municipal code violations in exchange for accepting services that could eventually lead to housing, as ordered by a judge.

“I thought this was a really innovative way to combat low-level homeless crime and get homeless people the help they need so they never have to go to court again,” Hochman said. in question.