A veteran city prosecutor filed a legal claim Thursday accusing her boss, Los Angeles City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto, of retaliating against her for “legal” reporting and ethical violations.”
Michelle McGinnis, who until April headed the city attorney’s criminal branch, alleged in her suit that Feldstein Soto made some decisions about who to prosecute based on “personal relationships” or “perceived political gain.”
At one point, according to the claim, Feldstein Soto told McGinnis she wanted the office to stop prosecuting corporate defendants. At another point, Feldstein Soto singled out a protester for prosecution without following proper law enforcement procedures, the claim says.
“When McGinniss objected, pointing out that the office was legally and ethically prohibited from making such prosecutorial decisions, he was subjected to a series of adverse employment actions and was ultimately placed on administrative leave, removed from the office, and barred from further contact with office co-workers and staff,” attorney Matthew McNicholas, whose firm is representing McGinniss, wrote in the claim.
McNicholas said in a statement that McGinnis also faced a “barrage of retaliatory actions” after reporting various other issues within the office, including mismanagement of grant funds, discriminatory treatment of co-workers and “inappropriate alcohol consumption” in the workplace by Feldstein Soto and Dennis Mills, a chief deputy city attorney.
According to the claim, on April 22, McGinnis was escorted out of the building in front of his co-workers, his laptop was forcibly taken away, and he was placed on administrative leave.
McGinnis, who was first hired by the city in 1993, is seeking at least $1 million in damages from the city for what she says are economic and non-economic damages, as well as harm to her reputation.
Feldstein Soto’s associates did not immediately respond to questions from The Times about the allegations made in the claim, which is the first step before filing a lawsuit.
The claim could pose a serious political threat to Feldstein Soto, who was elected in 2022 and is still less than halfway through her first four-year term. She is already facing criticism over her decision Prosecution of journalist Who obtained the records of Los Angeles police officers and their efforts to create legislation Weakening the state’s public records law,
The City Attorney’s Office has a dual role, representing the city in a wide range of legal matters while also prosecuting misdemeanor crimes.
In her claim, McGinniss said she repeatedly heard Feldstein Soto express a desire to stop prosecuting corporate defendants – on several occasions she said “the same crime” was the cause of the collapse of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm. McGinniss said she responded by giving Feldstein Soto a memorandum explaining the “proper” legal basis for charging corporate defendants, in order to ensure the city complied with the law.
In another incident, according to the claim, Feldstein Soto directed McGinnis to prosecute a man whom Feldstein Soto believed she had seen in a video of a protest outside the home of “an Israeli lobbyist” on the Westside late last year. The claim did not identify the lobbyist or the man at the protest.
McGinniss said he told Feldstein Soto that law enforcement needed to investigate first and warned that taking immediate action would “compromise any eventual prosecution,” according to the claim.
The claim states that Feldstein Soto also said certain cases should not be prosecuted because it would “adversely affect her political career.”
McGinnis Feldstein is one of several employees in Soto’s office who have claimed they faced retaliation for reporting misconduct.
In January, Deputy City Attorney David Bozanich filed a claim seeking $1 million in damages, saying higher-ups retaliated against him after he reported on the office. Violating federal policies on storing digital evidence. Bozanich said he was punished for engaging in “protected whistleblower disclosure activity.”
In February, the city attorney’s office rejected Bozanich’s claim. He still has several weeks to file a response.
In April, another employee in Feldstein Soto’s office filed a legal claim alleging she was retaliated against for identifying acts of racial discrimination. Administrative coordinator Sean C. Tyler accused the office of “treating people in a discriminatory manner” in hiring and promotions.
Tyler, who also described himself as a whistleblower, is seeking $10 million. He said in his claim that he was hired to work in the office’s data center on January 25, but the job offer was rescinded about two weeks later – even though he had already accepted the position and started work.
In his filing, Tyler said he also expressed concern that Feldstein Soto’s office was not complying with laws regulating access to sensitive law enforcement information.
Tyler, who still works in the city attorney’s office, confirmed to the Times that he had filed the claim. He declined to comment further.
Of the three claims, the one filed by McGinnis is by far the most detailed. His lawyers said that in February, he emailed Feldstein Soto a draft memo on “conflicts of interest and ethical considerations” intended to ensure compliance with ethics rules.
According to the claim, Feldstein Soto had a meeting with McGinnis a few days later. During that meeting, Feldstein Soto began “angrily banging her fist on the desk,” yelling and “saying things like ‘how dare you accuse me of this,'” the claim states.
According to the claim, McGinnis was criticized by higher-ups in front of his colleagues, accused of being incompetent and subjected to intense scrutiny.
McGinniss also alleged that on one occasion, Feldstein Soto directed him to “dismiss a corporate official from a criminal case.” In the claim, McGinniss did not name the corporate official, but said he believed Feldstein Soto gave this direction because he had a pre-existing relationship with that official or the corporation.
