leftist Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s right-hand woman is facing nearly 11 felony charges after state prosecutors say she helped obtain confidential information about 11 deputies in 2018 and when she She took it with her when she left the sheriff’s office to work for the DA. Later
Diana Teran is accused of gaining access to the sheriff’s office database about her deputies while she worked there and then taking that information with her to the district attorney’s office to work for Gascón, a Was elected on an anti-police platform. According to the California Attorney General’s Office, under Gascón, he “improperly” used data obtained improperly to solicit assistance.
During a controversial tenure in the DA’s office, she allegedly used some of that information to help criminal defendants and line prosecutors under her.
A law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that the case was referred to the state Attorney General’s Office due to a conflict of interest, indicating that Teran remained the leader of the office’s ethics and integrity unit for months despite an investigation into her conduct. . In that role, she was in charge of divisions that prosecuted allegations of misconduct against police and other public officials.
Top adviser to leftist California DA charged with nearly a dozen felonies
Diana Teran, former head of the Ethics and Integrity Unit of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, is pictured in an April booking photo following her arrest on 11 felony charges of taking and/or misusing data on sheriff’s deputies without authorization. (Los Angeles County)
“He illegally accessed officers’ files while he was with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department,” Deputy District Attorney Tatiana Chahoian told Fox News Digital in March. , “Then she came to the district attorney’s office and used all the information against the officers.”
In one case that Chahoian prosecuted, he said that a woman who took a felony plea bargain In a separate incident, a deputy was involved in the use of force after another woman’s collarbone was broken in a road rage fight while she was holding her child.
Teran allegedly withheld the entire case file as well as video evidence from the DA’s office, including Chahoian’s, which was handling the proceedings. In bodycam video later released by Sheriff Robert Luna, a DUI suspect can be seen arguing with deputies who pulled her boyfriend over in a DUI stop and the infant without a car seat or seat belt. Had found.
Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Tatiana Chahoian found herself in hot water after an interview with FOX 11 Los Angeles in which she delivered a memo about how to prosecute street racing and street “takeover” cases in the county. (Fox 11 Los Angeles)
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“The mother who was punched was a violent individual and had been involved in multiple incidents,” Chahoian said. “But Teran wanted to crack down on the deputy, so she made sure no one in the DA’s office had access to the actual video, including me, the appointed prosecutor.”
Teran’s attorney James Sprats previously told Fox News Digital that he expected his client to be acquitted and that the attorney general’s charges would prove to be a “very embarrassing” failure.
He said, “I want the world to know that the AG’s office will face very swift and swift damages on such a thoughtless legal theory that an officer can be prosecuted for carrying out an official act.” “It’s really something you wouldn’t expect in law enforcement today.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta speaks at a news conference at the state Capitol in Sacramento on February 23, 2022. Bonta’s office has filed 11 felony charges against a top Los Angeles deputy district attorney who headed the county’s ethics and integrity unit. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
The charges against Teran are believed to involve alleged misuse of “Brady” material – information about police Misconduct that should be assigned to defense attorneys.
“The controversy has now deepened with allegations that Teran illegally introduced sensitive information into the DA database – information that he and Gascón knew would inevitably be shared with defense attorneys,” John McKinney. , a veteran L.A. deputy district attorney who ran unsuccessfully to unseat Gascón in the recent primary election, wrote on X. “This alleged violation, committed by someone entrusted with maintaining the highest legal standards, represents serious criminal acts and reflects a lapse in judgment and leadership by Gascón.”
The Supreme Court ruled in the 1963 case Brady v. Maryland that prosecutors must disclose “physical evidence” that could help a defendant’s case, according to experts. Cornell Law School,
But that doesn’t mean they have to turn over all incriminating information about an officer involved in a criminal matter, and admittedly some of the information taken from the Sheriff’s Office includes unfounded or unsubstantiated allegations.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón (Myung Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)
The criminal complaint accuses Teran of taking, copying or using the data of 11 Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies without authorization.
“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said in a press release. “Public officials are called to serve the people and the State of California with integrity and honesty California “Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the people of California and hold those who break the law accountable.”
The Deputy District Attorneys Association, a union of county prosecutors that has been openly critical of Gascón over his policies, criticized Gascón in a posted statement. its website,
“Their case is still in its early stages,” wrote Ryan Ehrlich, the group’s vice president. “But it would not be premature to ask some key questions of Gascón and those close to him, starting with ‘What did the district attorney know and when did he know it?'”
Charges against Diana Teran, a top Los Angeles DA official, allege that she stole information from 11 deputies and “unexpectedly” accessed it years later. (Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)
The union also noted that another top Gascón aide, Joseph Iñiguez, allegedly threatened an officer who arrested him on public intoxication charges in 2021 and the county because of Gascón’s three years at the helm. Losses worth lakhs have been incurred in civil cases. The union named both iniguez and teran In a trial in 2022, they were both accused of instructing subordinates to break the law.
The General Prosecutor appeared to welcome the charges on social media.
“Have fun with your friends in jail, Dee!” Chahoian wrote.
Jonathan Hatami, another deputy district attorney who attempted to oust Gascón in the primary, wrote that the charges against Teran show that the DA’s leadership “is not sound or fair.”
“And, it is also illegal,” he added.
Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman, who is running as an independent candidate to unseat Gascón in November, told Fox News Digital, “This is a reflection of Gascón’s poor judgment and lack of leadership in running the district attorney’s office.” is the latest example of the demonstrated record of.” “Despite the legitimate objections of many experienced prosecutors, he promoted Teran to his No. 3 in command, ironically because he was in charge of ethics and integrity.”
Gascón defended his Brady policy in a statement and said he would cooperate with state investigators.
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“When I took over, we developed a protocol that ensured we complied with constitutional responsibility “Under Brady, that requires us to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, a category that includes prior misconduct by law enforcement, as well as compliance with state and federal law around privacy,” he said. “I stick to that protocol.”
Fox News’s Bill Melugin and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
