George Gascón, Los Angeles County’s District Attorney, has changed his prohibition of trying juvenile people as adults. The decision comes because of a case pending in the California Supreme Court and ongoing backlash about a choice to let a woman aged 26 years admit responsibility for sexually assaulting an individual aged 10 years in state juvenile court.
As per the new DA policy, prosecutors must not only inform Chief Deputy DA Sharon Woo when a defense lawyer looks to transfer a case out of adult court into juvenile court but also seek Woo’s permission to oppose that motion. Besides, the document directs them to inform Woo of a case with an adult as a defendant as proceedings are started in state juvenile court.
It appears that the latter situation mirrors the contentious Hannah Tubbs case. Tubbs should serve a two-year sentence in a state juvenile facility as she sexually assaulted a kid in Palmdale 8 years ago. Tubbs was a 17-year-old back then and was associated with the sexual assault incident only in 2019, as her DNA entered a database after she got arrested in a different state.
Los Angeles County’s Sheriff Alejandro Villanueva and Supervisor Kathryn Ann Barger criticized the choice to try her in the form of a juvenile. It raised questions over the failure of the US county to make a suitable accommodation setting for defendant parties who would otherwise have been punished to serve time in the California Division of Juvenile Justice. Governor Gavin Newsom of California initiated measures to close the system three years ago that mostly accommodated older juveniles sentenced for violent crimes.
Gascón is concerned about the possibility of a case appearing before the Supreme Court in the summer causing numerous cases subject to Proposition 57 to get expanded. The legal reform measure lets juveniles, who got sentenced in cases directly submitted to adult court, retroactively seek transfer hearings where prosecutors should convince judges that the defendants should have got tried as adults.
With some exceptions, those cases in the county have contributed to the defendants getting represented in the form of juveniles and instantly getting released. Gascón is ready to evolve his juvenile stance but did not go as far as saying whether he has considered trying juveniles alleged of committing very violent crimes in the form of adults.
About the changed policy, Gascón stated that the main driver for it is cases returning and the expectation for more workload in juvenile justice. Gascón will keep evaluating, and he strongly feels that the juvenile justice area should be considered differently from adults.
The policy modification got mixed reactions. Deputy DA John McKinney made many celebratory tweets insisting that public pressure made Gascón change his mind. McKinney has been an advocate of trying to recall the DA and criticizing the handling of the recent Tubbs case.
However, appellate lawyer Marketa Sims stated that she does not feel that the policy pointed toward any substantial change in the stance of the office about prosecuting juveniles. Sims plays a part in the case that DA Gascón referenced in the state Supreme Court.
Sims thinks that the office wants to know adults in state juvenile court. Sims stated that while it seems like the office wants to know those situations, it is unclear why it wants the same.
As for Sims, the failure of the US county to make a substitution for the California Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has affected juvenile justice matters in LA more than policies from DA Gascón.
Deputy DA Shea Sanna described the directive from Gascón as not much more than a PR stunt. Sanna claimed that managers would not let prosecutors pursue a juvenile transfer hearing proceeding or oppose a motion to transfer a case out of adult into juvenile court. Sanna stated that he thinks that it is in writing to cause it to appear that there would be an analysis dealing with each case separately. For your information, Sanna was part of the so-called Tubbs case as its lead prosecutor.
