No Felony for Racist Tape
LA DA Hands Over Case to City Attorney
A note on California: the state is a two-party consent state when it comes to recording people. In other words, unless you are taping someone saying they plan to eat Joe Biden’s dog Commander and have “a nice Chianti” along with, you can’t tape a person in a private setting without their permission.
Second, district attorney’s handle felony matters in California, while city attorneys - if applicable - handle misdemeanor cases.
Third, you may recall the incident as it made national and internaitonal news.
No felony charges will stem from the secret tape recording that caught four of Los Angeles’ most powerful politicians spouting nasty racist things and plotting as to how best carve up the city council to add more Hispanic members.
George Gascon’s Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has instead referred the incident to the office of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto for possible misdemeanor prosecution.
When released in October, 2022, the tape roiled city hall, leading then-Council President Nury Martinez to resign from first the presidency of the council and eventually the council entirely. Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera was also on the recording and he, too, resigned after it was made public.
Former Councilman Gil Cedillo was on the tape as well but he had already lost his bid for a new term in the March primary. Taking a different, more defiant stance, Councilman Kevin de Leon refused to step aside despite weeks of protests during council meetings and at his home calling for his resignation.
De Leon did apologize but, ignoring the mob calling for his head, actually did rather well in the March primary, coming in a very close second to Ysabel Jurado, a tenant’s attorney. Jurado got 24.5% of the vote and de Leon 23.4%, with only 392 votes separating the two. The two will face off in the November election.
The tape, which was recorded in October 2021, featured Martinez, de León, Cedillo, and Ron Herrera discussing the council re-districting process.
During the conversation, Martinez referred to then-Councilman Mike Bonin’s black son as a “monkey,” and de Leon opined that Bonin uses his son like a fashion accessory.
While much of the focus on the recording was about the racist statements, it cannot be forgotten that the four were privately discussing how best to manipulate the re-districting process:
“The recording was of a meeting regarding the re-districting of city council seats, one of the most important things electeds do - essentially picking who can vote for whom. The centrality of this point cannot be disregarded – this was not some random “a few too many cocktails at a fundraiser” gossip or some bad joke told in passing six years ago; this was them doing their job.
However, it cannot be emphasized enough that this situation is about far far more than race as it has pulled back the curtain and shown the public – bluntly and specifically – as to how LA (and sooooo much of government, everywhere) actually operates. Yes, it’s about race but it really is about much more.”
As for the decision to not charge the alleged recorders/distributors of the audio – labor federation employees Karla Vasquez and Santos Leon – the DA’s office said in its investigatory evaluation memo – obtained by the Los Angeles Times - of the case that it was “unclear how the unlawful recordings took place, the device used to do so, or who uploaded the recordings online and created the anonymous accounts on Reddit, Twitter, and Gmail.”
As neither suspect has a criminal record and the potential offense could be charged by law either as a misdemeanor or a felony (what is known as a “wobbler” case) the DA’s office passed it along to the city attorney for further investigation and possible misdemeanor charges.
The city attorney has until October of next year to file charges before the statute of limitations runs out.
Earlier this year, Gascon was endorsed for re-election by the labor federation.
I’m sure that has nothing to do with his decision.