Next L.A. D.A. to undo Gascón policies, revisit Menendez brothers case

Nov. 7, 2024 Updated 2:16 PM PT

After routing incumbent L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón, Nathan Hochman said he will immediately wipe away many of his predecessor’s policies after he’s inaugurated Dec. 2.
Hochman’s agenda includes a return to seeking the death penalty, renewed misdemeanor prosecutions, and pursuing long prison terms in cases that involve guns or gangs.
Several high-profile cases — including the resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez — could also be up for review.

On his first day in office four years ago, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón issued a slate of progressive edicts that many prosecutors in his office said handcuffed them in the fight against crime.

When Nathan Hochman takes Gascón’s seat in fewer than 30 days, he has vowed to untie those same prosecutors’ hands, rolling back his predecessor’s policies.

Hochman’s agenda includes a return to seeking the death penalty, an increase in the prosecution of low-level misdemeanors and using sentencing enhancements to seek long prison terms in cases that involve guns or gangs.

After routing Gascón on election night by 23 percentage points, Hochman said in an interview Wednesday that he plans to immediately deliver on his campaign promises to wipe away several of his predecessor’s “blanket, lazy policies” when he’s inaugurated Dec. 2.

Several high-profile cases — including the Gascón-backed resentencing of Erik and Lyle Menendez — could also be up for review, Hochman told The Times.

Hochman said Wednesday that his decisive victory is proof that Angelenos — and perhaps Californians at large — are fed up with policies that cause crime fighting to take a backseat to criminal justice reform.

“I take that as a strong expression for what I was standing for, and what I was standing for was a rejection of extremism,” he said. “Extreme policies that were pro-criminal and decarceral, that predetermined certain criminals will not be prosecuted.”

Hochman’s victory was met with cheers throughout the law enforcement community, including the hundreds of deputy district attorneys who spent most of Gascón’s term at war with their boss. More than 20 have sued him, alleging retaliation for challenging his agenda.

However, some prominent legal figures, such as L.A. County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia, called on Hochman to recognize that some of Gascón’s reforms were sorely needed.

“I urge the incoming D.A. to prioritize addressing systemic injustices, reducing reliance on over incarceration, and ensuring fairness for all individuals facing prosecution,” he said in a statement. “We work in an adversarial system, but I am committed to working constructively to drive reforms that are necessary for a more equitable and humane criminal legal system.”

Gascón conceded the race to Hochman early Wednesday morning, and the pair had a brief and cordial discussion about a cooperative transition over the next several weeks, according to aides to both men who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Once Hochman takes office, he plans to immediately erase most of the “special directives” that Gascón issued. Prosecutors will be able to seek capital punishment again, despite the fact that Gov. Gavin Newsom placed a moratorium on executions in 2019. Hochman said pursuit of death verdicts will take place only in “rare” cases, including school shootings, domestic terror attacks or the “cold-blooded assassination of a police officer.”

Hochman’s prosecutors also will again be able to file charges in minor crimes including trespassing, public intoxication and simple drug possession, misdemeanor cases Gascón stopped his staff from seeking in an effort to reduce the jail population and direct resources to more serious offenses. Critics, including Hochman, allege non-enforcement of lower-level crimes has fueled homelessness and drug addiction.

Under those policies, the district attorney’s office filed misdemeanors half as often as it did under ex-Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey, according to a prior Times analysis. The policy shift under Hochman will affect only jurisdictions that don’t have their own city prosecutors to handle misdemeanor cases.

“I’m not going to do what Gascón has done with many of these people and just pretend their crime has not happened... but their punishment must be proportional to the crime,” Hochman said, invoking the possibility of diversion programs or court-mandated rehabilitation for those who commit offenses while suffering from drug addiction.

Gascón halted the use of sentencing enhancements against people who allegedly used a gun or committed an offense on behalf of a gang. Hochman plans to bring back the harsher penalties, despite evidence that they disparately affect defendants of color.

Public records previously obtained by The Times show that L.A. County prosecutors used sentencing enhancements nearly half a million times from 2010 to 2020. The race of the defendants was not recorded, but in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties during the same period, records show 90% of those targeted for enhancements were Black or Latino.

Hochman downplayed concerns about racial bias, citing an Assembly bill that requires information about the ethnicity of defendants and witnesses to be stripped from investigative reports before filing decisions are made. The so-called “racially blind” prosecution approach, launched at Stanford University and championed by Gascón while he was San Francisco’s district attorney, has not yet been implemented in Los Angeles County, but Hochman said he plans to make use of it.

Some recent headline-grabbing decisions by Gascón and his appointees could also be subject to review by Hochman in December. Last month, Gascón said he would ask a judge to resentence the Menendez brothers in the brutal 1989 slayings of their parents, a move that could end with the brothers being granted parole. A court hearing on the resentencing petition is scheduled for Dec. 11, nine days after Hochman’s inauguration.

The case could wrap up before Hochman takes office, because a judge will hear a motion Nov. 25 to vacate the brothers’ convictions because they were not allowed to introduce evidence that they were sexually abused by their father at their second trial. The brothers’ attorney has also petitioned Newsom for clemency.

Hochman criticized Gascón’s move last month as a political ploy, and said Wednesday that he would review the case if it hasn’t been resolved by the time he takes office.

Bryan Freeman, an attorney representing more than two dozen of the brothers’ loved ones who have been pleading for their release, called on Hochman to honor Gascón’s decision.

“Childhood sexual abuse is not gender based, and a failure to recognize that sets an extremely dangerous precedent. Politics should not stand in the way of doing the right thing. I would find it hard to believe Nathan Hochman would feel differently,” he said in a statement. “The family of the victims and my firm will continue to exercise their victims rights and are cautiously optimistic that the DA, the DA elect, the Governor, and anyone committed to upholding true justice will join us.”

The potential prosecution of ex-LAPD officer Clifford Proctor in the shooting death of a homeless man in Venice could also be upended. Sources told The Times last month that a special prosecutor Gascón hired to review police cases, Lawrence Middleton, had sought an arrest warrant for Proctor. Hochman also blasted that move, noting the statue of limitations for manslaughter had run out on the case and said he believed a murder filing was unwarranted.

The newly elected district attorney said Wednesday that he may also review the viability of that case once a complaint or indictment becomes public. Neither Gascón or Middleton has commented on Proctor’s case.

Overall, Hochman said, he is eager to put together a transition team and get to work.

“The clock is ticking. I will start Day One with a team in place that will be able to bring justice and safety to the folks in this county,” he said.

Times staff writer Ben Poston contributed to this report.