Fresno County’s top prosecutor has penned a letter to her counterpart in Los Angeles County, telling him that a series of controversial directives he issued upon taking office last month are “extreme’’ and “already wreaking havoc on crime victims.’’
The letter, dated Monday, is the second that George Gascon has been sent in recent weeks in which a district attorney from another county has refused to grant him jurisdiction in cases involving defendants accused of committing crimes in the counties they represent.
Last week, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert characterized many of Gascon’s directives as “illegal and unconstitutional’’–a contention repeated again by Fresno County D.A. Lisa A. Smittcamp.
Last week, Gascon said “prosecutors like Ms. Schubert love to push their backwards policies in the names of victims, but they do so in ignorance of the harm caused to the broader community and the additional victims to date shows these policies create in the future.’’
Smittcamp wrote: “Your special directives are extreme, and they are already wreaking havoc on crime victims and ignoring their constitutional rights. Your lack of concern for victims’ rights and public safety is of great concern to all of us who pride ourselves on protecting those very things. Crime has no boundaries, and these special directives will certainly impact areas outside of Los Angeles County.’’
She noted that Gascon’s new directives will only result in “more crime, less accountability, less responsibility, more victims, more addiction and more mental illness.”
Gascon has said that he has a “mandate from the public’’ to reverse tough-on-crime policies of the past that he said “undermine rehabilitation, exacerbate racial and other inequities” in the justice system.
