Los Angeles Continued Prosecuting Low-Level Offenses Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Under their state’s rules to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Californians are not supposed to leave home except to pick up groceries or prescriptions, go to the doctor, and commute to jobs deemed essential. As part of this effort, prosecutors — including Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey — have pledged to avoid dragging people into court or sending them to the city’s overcrowded jail for cases that can be dismissed or handled at a later date.
“I have asked my attorneys to consider the health risks in every decision they make,” Lacey said in a March 20 statement. “I have directed them to consider ways to keep nonviolent felony and misdemeanor offenders out of our jails and courthouses during this pandemic,” she continued.
Despite these assurances, since California’s shelter-in-place mandate went into effect more than 10 days ago, Lacey’s office has pursued cases against individuals accused of panhandling, drinking in public, driving with a suspended license, drug possession, and loitering, according to a review by former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who is running to replace Lacey as LA’s top prosecutor.
Prosecuting low-level misdemeanors “will very possibly cost lives,” Gascón said in a statement on Monday outlining his own recommendations for prosecutorial conduct during the pandemic. Merely holding hearings means defendants, their lawyers, prosecutors, judges, sheriff’s deputies, clerks, court reporters, and translators have to gather together in the same room, he noted — at a time when people are being instructed to avoid congregating in groups.
On March 20, the day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ordered the state’s residents to stay home, a man facing charges for drug possession and driving with a suspended license had a hearing in an Inglewood courtroom. Prosecutors filed a case against him at a time when LA County courts were mostly closed earlier this month. His...
