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Gascón forced to walk back claim about LA sheriff’s approval in hit-and-run prosecution, light sentence

June 5, 2022 | | Print Article

Los Angeles’s ultra-progressive district attorney, George Gascón, got called out by Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva and was forced to walk back his claim that the sheriff’s department “agreed with the felony charges” against and light sentencing of a 17-year-old who plowed into a mother and her infant son.

As previously reported by American Wire, the teenager, who was 16 at the time of the incident, was high on drugs when drove his car straight into the mother, known only as “Rachel,” as she was walking her son in his stroller — contradicting reports state that the child was 8 months old and 10 months old. He then sped off.

Miraculously, both mother and son survived the assault with only minor injuries, but Rachel is now furious over yet another light sentence handed to the minor, who pled guilty to two felony charges of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run.

“I have never been more surprised or disappointed, and, in fact, I have never felt so victimized as I have by the system and current policies of LA’s DA, George Gascó,” Rachel said in an impact  statement, after Gascón sentenced the teen to just five months in a “juvenile probation camp.”

In an initial statement from Gascón to Fox News Digital, the DA falsely claimed the Sheriff’s Department was on board with both the charges filed against the teen and the subsequent sentencing.

“Fortunately, the baby was uninjured, and the mother received a laceration to her elbow,” the statement read. “The Sheriff’s Department agreed with the felony charges that were filed. At arraignment, the minor admitted two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run. The Probation Department recommended, and the court sentenced the minor to a youth camp for five to seven months, an appropriate resolution.”

According to the DA’s statement, juvenile justice is meant to “rehabilitate young people.”

“In this case, this teen will be held accountable for his actions and receive the needed services to foster positive development to keep him from committing future offenses,” the statement read.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva quickly corrected the liberal DA.

“We were never consulted as we were not the investigating agency,” Villanueva stated on Facebook and Twitter. “[Sheriff’s] Investigators would never be OK with the lightweight sentencing in this hit-and-run case. #VictimMatter.”

Gascón’s office was forced to walk his claim back.

“Need to correct our statement from yesterday,” a spokesperson for the DA’s office told Fox on Saturday. “LASD was not involved in the decision on the felony charge, as they were not the investigating agency in that case.”

This isn’t the first time Gascón has had to backpedal after seeking soft sentences, and it isn’t the first time his office has clashed with Villanueva’s.

In February, Gascón declared he would be rethinking his soft-on-crime policies after he charged 26-year-old Hannah Tubbs, a transgender convict who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the bathroom of a Palmdale Denny’s prior to transitioning, as a minor and sentenced her to two years in a juvenile facility.

At the time, Villanueva’s office offered to house Tubbs in an adult county jail, but Gascón declined.

A mountain of criticism and one month later, the DA stated he “became aware of extremely troubling statements [Tubbs] made about her case, the resolution of it and the young girl she harmed.”

Gascón admitted his office may have made a mistake with Tubbs and enacted a “policy safety valve” that would allow prosecutors to seek stiffer penalties for “outlier cases.”

Apparently, the teenage driver who nearly killed a mother and her child did not meet Gascón’s requirements for a harsher sentence.

According to Fox, prosecutors in the case described the juvenile probation camp the teen is headed for is “less than a military school and a little bit tougher than a summer camp.”

Melissa Fine
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