Metropolitan News: DA Office Appears to Sidestep Preliminary Injunction
The Office of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is skirting a Feb. 8 preliminary injunction barring enforcement of certain “special directives” that the chief prosecutor issued on Dec. 7, his first day in office, by withholding the evidence that’s needed to prove gang allegations, a transcript, obtained yesterday, shows.
One of the directives mandated motions to vacate all enhancement allegations pled under the administration of Gascón’s predecessor, Jackie Lacey. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant on Dec. 7 barred the district attorney from “compelling deputy district attorneys to move to dismiss… any existing sentencing enhancement in a pending case without having legal grounds as required by [Penal Code] section 1385.”
That section authorizes such motions only where facts indicate that removing the allegations would be in the “furtherance of justice” or the allegations could not be proven.
Failing to present evidence proving the allegations would constitute a de facto withdrawal of them.<
