New LA DA pledges to end 'pro-criminal extreme policies'

Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who defeated incumbent George Gascón to become Los Angeles County's next district attorney with more than 60% of the vote, credited his victory to people being tired of rising crime.

"I'm very excited to convert the energy we just spent on this campaign speaking to thousands of people around Los Angeles County who have been fed up and frustrated with the lack of safety they've experienced over the last four years," Hochman said in a phone interview Wednesday.

"I'm excited to take that energy and bring that into the DA's office and partner with the over 750 deputy district attorneys who were looking for a leader that will actually allow them to do their jobs and apply their collective thousands of years of wisdom and prosecutorial experience to making sure justice is done in each case throughout the county," he continued.

Gascón, who began his first term in Los Angeles County on Dec. 7, 2020 after serving eight years as DA in San Francisco, characterized Tuesday's result as part of a countrywide shift toward conservatism in a statement Wednesday morning.

"The rightward shift across America last night is heartbreaking," Gascón said. "Democrats have a long road ahead, but the work is more vital than ever, and our commitment will not waver. Nevertheless, I have called Mr. Hochman and wish him the best as Los Angeles County's next district attorney. I'm deeply proud of what we've accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities who have been and will always be the heart of criminal justice reform."

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, who fiercely supported Hochman and condemned Gascón's record and policies before his election congratulated Hochman in a statement on Wednesday.

"Hochman's victory marks a pivotal moment in the fight to return balance and accountability to the justice system and to prioritize public safety in a county that has seen a dangerous decline under the failed leadership of George Gascón," the statement read. "We look forward to working with a leader who has promised to put justice and public safety ahead of politics and partisanship, uphold the law, prioritize crime victims, treat our members with dignity and respect, and work with our union and our colleagues, constructively and in good faith, on issues related to wages, hours, and working conditions."

Ryan H. Erlich, a deputy district attorney and the association's vice president, previously bemoaned the lack of a working relationship between the incumbent and his deputies.

"Our relationship with him has been extraordinarily negative from the very first day, and a lot of that stems from his decision to immediately retaliate against people who raise legal questions about his policies, and also his decision to ignore and flout civil service laws that exist to take politics out of the DA's office," Erlich said in a phone interview on Oct. 31.

"One of Mr. Gascón's major strategic political and management failures was his decision on Day One to implement a set of policies without any buy-in, check-in or discussion with the line deputies who would be responsible for implementing those policies and who had, collectively, hundreds of years of experience working in the courts," Erlich continued.

Those policies will be among the first to go under Hochman's leadership, he said following the election on Wednesday.

"I will, on Day One, eliminate pro-criminal extreme policies that are not based on the facts of the law, but predetermined that certain crimes and certain criminals will not be prosecuted based on Mr. Gascón's political agenda," Hochman said.

Still, he pushed back on the idea that he would be executing a purely conservative or right-wing agenda.

"I'm not going to replace it with extreme mass incarceration policies also not based on the facts of the law," he said. "Both extreme policies don't work. Where I come down is what I've called the hard work middle, or the hard middle. That is a rejection of lazy blanket policies, and it says that you've got to do all the work on individual cases on an individualistic basis, looking at the individual defendant and the defendant's background, the crime committed and the impact on the victim, to determine who the true threats are to our public safety."

Hochman gave Gascón credit for identifying problems related to police accountability, freeing innocent inmates and reducing racial bias both explicit and implicit within the system.

"Where I strongly disagree with Mr. Gascón - and clearly voters appreciate my approach - is his solutions to these problems," he said, pointing to Gascón's appointment of former federal prosecutor Lawrence S. Middleton as a special prosecutor of police misconduct.

"Unlike Mr. Gascón, who attacked police accountability by hiring a special prosecutor at $750,000 who's only brought two cases in 3 1/2 years, I have personal experience going after police officers," Hochman continued.

He pointed specifically to his role in Operation Big Spender, when he helped catch 26 deputy sheriffs who were caught skimming money from narcotics investigations in the 1990s.

"I have no tolerance for any law enforcement officer who crosses the line," he said. "However, I believe that the overwhelming numbers of law enforcement officers are doing a difficult and dangerous job very well, and those officers deserve our respect, our admiration, and [with me as] D.A., their partnership."

Gascón supporters remained skeptical that Hochman will hold police accountable for misconduct, however.

"What we saw in prior administrations - in fact, two decades prior to Mr. Gascón taking office in 2020 - is that in 20 years, two officers were criminally charged for their conduct while on duty," said Christian M. Contreras, a civil rights attorney in Los Angeles who serves on the board of the Mexican American Bar Association.

That number rose to 52 law enforcement officers in 2021 and 2022 according to Gascón's 2023 midterm report, Contreras said.

The association offered a co-endorsement to Gascón along with Deputy District Attorney Maria Ramirez during the election.

"We believe that some of his policies, including not using gang enhancement ... including not abiding by the death penalty, including ensuring that there is conviction integrity, and also the special directive by Mr. Gascón which addressed immigration, as well as the policy concerning accountability in law enforcement were all policies and directives that MABA believed were aligned with the mission of MABA, which would be to, of course, empower the Latino community in the legal profession," Contreras said.

Hochman's win is especially troubling in the shadow of the federal election results, Contreras said.

"The election of Donald Trump ... raises a whole set of different topics of discussion, but the main one is his promise for mass deportations. That was a promise that he campaigned on," Contreras said. "In order for mass deportations to occur, the federal government needs to be in communication with local authorities."

"It's not clear from Mr. Hochman what his policy on immigration will be," Contreras added. "So given that uncertainty, and given that Donald Trump is now back in office, there will be a blistering effect in the Latino community in LA County in terms of folks being deported and not being protected."