November 2017
Volume 2, Issue 11
Dear Friends:
Each year, my office sponsors and supports legislation to improve California’s criminal justice system and increase public safety. 

For the second year in a row, every bill my office sponsored was signed into law by Governor Brown.

Read the full remarks  here .
Spotlight:
 Third Strike Resentencing Unit
When voters approved Proposition 36, the Three Strikes Reform Act, in November 2012, the District Attorney’s Office was hit with a virtual deluge.

The measure allowed inmates serving life sentences for non-serious and nonviolent offenses under the state’s Three Strikes Law the opportunity to ask a judge for a new and shorter sentence. More than 1,100 requests came to the District Attorney’s Office.

With public safety in mind, a team of deputy district attorneys from the Third Strike Resentencing Unit has been doing its best to stem that flood of litigation.

Prosecutors are required under the law to determine whether there are sufficient facts to establish that the petitioner poses an unreasonable threat to public safety. They must analyze and attempt to predict the future danger posed by the offenders petitioning for resentencing.

To do so, the unit’s eight prosecutors comb through the details of each inmate’s criminal history and review what may amount to thousands of pages of prison conduct records in each case. They also review past arrests, juvenile history, psychological history, gang involvement and behavior in prison to determine whether they will oppose resentencing.

After painstaking review, prosecutors found hundreds of cases in which they had no objection to resentencing the inmates. But they also found hundreds of others that they believe create a public safety risk and have opposed those inmates’ release back into the community.

To date, about 43 percent of the resentenced inmates who have been released from prison under Proposition 36 have been arrested on new charges, according to statistics kept by the unit. There are roughly 200 petitions still pending.

Fraud Alert
  Significant Cases
Email phishing scams continue to be a favorite tool of financial predators who primarily target seniors.

The crooks impersonate a legitimate company or governmental department with the goal of stealing a senior’s personal information or login credentials.


Read the Fraud Alert here .
  • A motorist accused of driving under the influence of cocaine pleaded to killing a Los Angeles police officer when her SUV collided with the officer’s motorcycle. Learn more about the sentence.

  • A father was charged with child abuse for injuring his 10-year-old daughter in a car crash while he allegedly was driving under the influence. Read more about the case.

  • A North Hollywood man was charged with criminal threats and animal cruelty for allegedly threatening the life of a neighbor and stabbing another neighbor’s 8-year-old Pomeranian dog. Find out more about the crime.
LADA Helps Victims in Las Vegas
The woman couldn’t speak or lean over. She had been shot and suffered injuries to her neck during the horrific Oct. 1 attack at a Las Vegas music festival that left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.

The injuries required her to remain sitting upright as she recovered at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas. But she wanted to see a furry friend who was nearby. She motioned to the District Attorney’s facility dog, Skippy, to come her way.

Skippy, who is trained to comfort crime victims, and his handler, Victim Services Representative Ashley Meyers, obliged. While the woman couldn’t lean toward Skippy, she used her feet to pet the 2-½-year-old yellow Labrador.

Skippy was part of a team from the District Attorney’s Bureau of Victim Services that was summoned to Las Vegas to assist victims in the aftermath of the Route 91 Harvest Festival. The effort was led by the FBI, the Red Cross and the California Victim Compensation Board.

For eight days, the team was stationed mostly at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which served as the Family Assistance Center. Victim Services Representatives Jenneifer Bobadilla, Gabriela Bailey-Juarez and Emyrene Coleman acted as companions to those seeking services at the center.

Skippy and Meyers also helped many of the victims get through the day.

That included a military veteran who lost his belongings while working at the festival and was in need of financial assistance.

“He was visibly shaking,” Meyers said. Bailey-Juarez “asked if he wanted Skippy, and he wasn’t interested. But Skippy pressed his head gently on the man's lap and the man started petting him. A few minutes later, he stopped shaking, and he was in a much better mood.”

Even after the team left Las Vegas, the District Attorney’s Bureau of Victim Services is continuing to assist victims of the shooting who reside in Los Angeles County.

Los Angeles County residents in need of victim services stemming from the Las Vegas shooting may call (800) 380-3811.
Criminal Justice Wall of Fame
District Attorney Jackie Lacey welcomed nearly 100 guests to the Judges Arthur L. Alarcón and Warren L. Ettinger Criminal Justice Wall of Fame Ceremony on Oct. 27 in front of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Seated, from left, attorney Richard G. Hirsch, who spoke on behalf of inductee Judge Jack E. Goertzen; U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Judge Stephen S. Trott, who inducted former District Attorney John Van de Kamp; Superior Court Presiding Judge Daniel Buckley; attorney Rickey Ivie, who remembered inductee Judge Charles Scarlett; and retired Deputy District Attorney Clayburn Peters, who memorialized and inducted his brother, attorney Franklin Peters Jr. Also inducted were noted criminal defense attorneys Anthony P. Brooklier, William J. Genego and Paul Geragos.
Did You Know...?
A memorial to roughly 250 Los Angeles County employees who served in “The World War” from 1917 to 1919 is located just inside the Spring Street entrance of the Hall of Justice. When the building opened in 1925, World War II was 14 years away. The veterans’ names are displayed on two 80-inch-tall bronze plaques. The memorial notes that five of those named died in the war.
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office | (213) 974-3512 | info@da.lacounty.gov

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