To the Judges:

Throughout 2022 a mutiny brewed among the ranks of the Los Angeles County District
Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors, duty-bound to protect the rights of crime victims and their families, repeatedly
found themselves in the cross-hairs of District Attorney George Gascon after challenging his
controversial sentencing policies.
Time and time again, Gascon, who was elected on a progressive platform, ordered prosecutors
to comply with his blanket directives that substantially changed the way crimes are prosecuted.
Specifically, he received criticism for abolishing the ability of prosecutors to file certain crimes
against juveniles governed under California’s “three-strikes” law, allowing several violent
offenders to be released from prison early.
Southern California News Group Investigative Reporter Scott Schwebke obtained confidential
memos, poured over court records, and interviewed numerous prosecutors to chronicle the
impact of Gascon’s policies on public safety and the retribution that followed for prosecutors
who publicly complained.
In some cases, the early release of offenders sanctioned by Gascon had deadly consequences.
Schwebke reported that in one glaring instance, because Gascon refused to transfer the case
from juvenile to adult court, a man released from prison after serving only eight years of a life
sentence for a double murder had been arrested again for yet another killing.
More than a half-dozen prosecutors who complained about Gascon’s policies filed lawsuits
alleging they were transferred and demoted for opposing him. Many of those prosecutors
shared their stories with Schwebke, giving readers a unique insight into the interworking of a
District Attorney’s Office in disarray.
As a result of Schwebke’s reporting and that of other journalists, Gascon walked back some of
his policies, acknowledging “adjustments sometimes are warranted.”