New Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hockman sued the county for $1 million after his predecessor, George Gascon, hired prosecutors to prosecute police shootings but failed to do so. , fired.
of Los Angeles Times reported Monday:
[Lawrence] middleton Brought to you by former Dist. Atty. Gascon In 2021, charges in four separate shootings in the former district will be reviewed. Atty. Jackie Lacey's government declined to prosecute. Middleton's contract expires in June, but Hockman has “options” to terminate it early and is in discussions with the county attorney to do so, the district attorney's office said.
…
Middleton's hiring is meant to fulfill Gascón's campaign promise to improve police accountability within prosecutors, which had rarely, if ever, prosecuted police officers for on-duty shootings before the election. It was an early attempt at But it also contributed to heightened tensions between Mr. Gascón and his affiliated prosecutors. They were dissatisfied with the idea that their decisions could be overturned by outsiders. The amount of money the county plans to spend on independent investigators added to the tension. Some derided the veteran prosecutor as a “billionaire Middleton.”
Records show Middleton billed the county for just over $1 million between June 2021 and October 2024. The average annual salary for a Los Angeles County prosecutor is about $135,000, according to the Assn. of the assistant district attorney. A county spokeswoman said Middleton's salary came directly from the district attorney's office budget.
As Breitbart News reported at the time, Gascón was elected in 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement with millions of dollars in support from left-wing billionaire Democratic donor George Soros. He defeated Lacey, the first black woman to hold the job, who had been a target of the movement as a symbol of law enforcement. He immediately began implementing radical “criminal justice reform” policies, which the public blamed for the rise in violent crime.
Mr. Hochman took office less than two weeks ago and immediately set about reversing Mr. Gascón's policies, including blocking prosecutors Rhine from seeking reduced sentences for particularly violent or egregious crimes. He also pledged to form a task force to deal with specific crimes affecting local residents, such as home break-ins.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. his recent book, red novembertells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
