LA deputy district attorneys have a long history of opposing George Gascón’s reforms

After winning a hotly-contested election, LA County’s new district attorney took over the nation’s largest prosecutorial outfit in late 2020. Since then, George Gascón has been steadfast in his promise to upend an instituted tough-on-crime approach and replace it with sweeping reforms. Those promises have been met with fierce opposition from Gascón’s own prosecutors in the form of a lawsuit.

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys (ADDA) of LA County brought the suit against Gascón in December. In early February, the judge ruled mostly in favor of the union representing the deputy district attorneys. Gascón intends to appeal the ruling.

recent article for The Appeal, journalist Piper French says that kind of opposition is not out of character for the ADDA of LA County. She says, “Generally, we’re seeing pretty much any time there is a big reform that’s proposed, we see the ADDA coming out against it. So that does suggest there is a bit of a pattern going on here.”