LA Superior Court Enjoins Many Gascón Policies

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant granted most of the preliminary injunction sought by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County (ADDA) against recently elected District Attorney George Gascón. Among other matters, the DA is enjoined from requiring deputies to violate the mandatory charging aspect of California’s Three Strikes Law.

Here is the operative paragraph of the order:

ADDA’s application for a preliminary injunction is granted in large part. A preliminary injunction will issue that enjoins the District Attorney, through his Special Directives, from (a) requiring deputy district attorneys not to plead and prove strike priors under the Three Strikes law, (b) requiring deputy district attorneys to read the statement in Special Directive 20-08.1 to trial courts without adding qualifying language concerning Kilborn and other controlling case law and without having legal grounds to seek dismissal under section 1385, (c) compelling deputy district attorneys to move to dismiss strike priors or any existing sentencing enhancement in a pending case without having legal grounds as required by section 1385, (d) compelling deputy district attorneys to move to dismiss or withdraw special circumstance allegations that would result in a LWOP sentence without legal grounds as required by sections 1385 and 1386, and (e) compelling deputy district attorneys not to use proven special circumstances for sentencing in violation of section 1385.1. The preliminary injunction will not enjoin the District Attorney from preventing deputy district attorneys from charging sentencing enhancements in new cases where not required by the Three Strikes law.

Note the last sentence. Although Three Strikes is the best known and most controversial of California’s sentence-enhancement laws, there are many others that are necessary to make the punishment fit the crime and the perpetrator’s criminal history. Mr. Gascón can continue to effectively wipe those enhancements off the books for new cases to the detriment of the law-abiding people of Los Angeles County. The only remedy in the near term is recall.