KFI AM 640: Deputy DA Alleges Retaliation for Protesting DA’s Juvenile Directive
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A veteran prosecutor is suing Los Angeles County, alleging she has been denied important positions in retaliation for complaining about directives set forth after the November election of District Attorney George Gascon.
Deputy District Attorney Shawn Randolph’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit, filed Tuesday, seeks unspecified damages.
A representative for the District Attorney’s Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
At the time of Gascon’s election, Randolph was the head prosecutor in charge of the District Attorney’s Office’s Juvenile Division, in which she supervised about 50 lawyers and 50 civilian workers, the suit states. On Feb. 1, she was transferred the parole division, a “dead-end position for a head deputy,” the suit states.
Randolph was denied transfers to head the District Attorney’s branch offices in Torrance and Long Beach Superior Courts even though she was the most qualified applicant for each position, the suit states.
After Gascon was sworn into office Dec. 7, he released numerous directives, including a policy that, among other things, mandated that Randolph use alternative theories of prosecution that minimized a juvenile’s criminal conduct, no matter how violent the offenses, the suit states.
“In essence, plaintiff was directed not to file strike offenses against juveniles and this directive creates a false and misleading description to the court of the crimes that were actually committed,” the suit states.
