Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has repeatedly shown that his judgment is severely flawed, which is a problem for someone tasked with keeping the public safe.
The latest news in Gascon’s terrible decision-making comes from the California attorney general’s office, which has filed 11 felony charges against Diana Teran. Teran is accused of illegally downloading police officer personnel files, acquiring information that she would have presumably then used before or during trials.
What does this have to do with Gascon? Teran was hired by Gascon in 2021 as a special adviser before being put in charge of the “Justice System Integrity Division,” which prosecutes police and attorneys. Teran has since been promoted to assistant district attorney and was Gascon’s chief of ethics and integrity.
Yes, you read that correctly. George Gascon’s chief of ethics and integrity is being charged by the Democratic attorney general of California with illegally downloading and using personnel files. It’s not a bad joke, nor is it a Republican witch hunt. It’s just another day in the life of Gascon’s administration.
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The problems with Teran’s hiring extend beyond just this alleged crime, though. Teran is a defense-orientated person who was hired out of the public defender’s office, yet another defense-focused higher-up in Gascon’s office. Gascon himself is a pro-criminal “reformer” whose focus remains on helping criminals avoid prison time and not helping keep the public safe. He also made a pro-looting prison abolitionist his chief of staff.
Gascon has turned the district attorney’s office into a secondary public defender’s office, doing his best to use his position to cut time off of criminals’ sentences instead of fulfilling his role in the criminal justice system. That leads to the hiring and promotion of someone such as Teran, who, criminal charges aside, does not belong in a prosecutor’s office. Then again, neither does Gascon, from whom all the problems in the Los Angeles criminal justice system stem.