George Gascón facing backlash from his own deputy district attorneys
"It’s all about the defendants, the defendants, the defendants," says Deputy District Attorney Paul Moll.
LOS ANGELES - He has been a Los Angeles County prosecutor for the last 15 years but in the last two weeks under new rules by District Attorney George Gascón, Moll says it feels more like he’s working for the defense.
He says, "It’s like it’s been a hostile takeover of the DA’s office by the defense bar, the way they work together to prevent us from keeping people safe. It’s shocking!"
Moll is the second deputy district attorney going on the record, stating Gascón is forcing them to lie in court when dropping special enhancement allegations against a defendant.
Deputy DA Jonathan Hatami was the first to go public.
"He wants us to say it’s in the interest of justice even if we don’t believe it is and even if the evidence doesn’t show it, he still wants us to say that and if we don’t, we could get in trouble," says Hatami.
Moll adds, "Public safety seems to have been thrown out the window. I’m supposed to argue to let serious, violent, repeat offenders that, you know, are going to go out and victimize people again, to just let them go."
For not doing just that, Moll says a defense attorney reported him to his superiors. He’s convinced Gascón’s team is working closely with defense attorneys.
He says, "I work with defense attorneys all day, every day and they’ve told me that they’ve received these emails from my office inviting them to report us."
The new directives Moll is mostly concerned with include resentencing old cases, no DA representation at parole hearings and a charging directive that won’t allow prosecutors to introduce prior felonies or allegations.
Moll says the most difficult part of it all, is letting the victims know. "My heart goes out to the victims, they’re going to have some terrible reality checks pretty soon."
Even though Moll fears retaliation for speaking up, he says staying silent is something he simply can not do under these circumstances.
He says, "If I were to get fired, at least I could tell my kids I did the right thing."
FOX 11 News contacted George Gascón’s for comment but his office spokesperson declined.
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