LA Prosecutors Decline to File Charges Against Leakers of City Council Racist Recording

Los Angeles County prosecutors just refused to file charges against the two L.A. County Federation of Labor workers who recorded and released audio where several L.A. City Councilmembers could be heard making racist remarks, sending it instead to the LA City Attorney’s office.

The recording, which also featured a conversation on how they could manipulate City Council boundaries and help reconfigure power, made national and international news in October of 2022 following being leaked, largely because of the racist language in the recording. The leak itself sparked widespread protests in the city, with the outcry from the scandal causing both Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez to resign in disgrace. In addition, Councilman Gil Cedillo left office a few months later in disgrace, while Councilman Kevin de Leon managed to barely avoid resignation and a recall attempt due to lingering support from the Latino community in his district.

The audio itself recorded in October 2021, with the four discussing council redistricting and Councilman Mike Bonin, a white and openly gay Councilman, and his young black son.

“Bonin thinks he’s f—ing black,” said Martinez in the audio. “He handled his young Black son as though he were an accessory. They’re raising him like a little White kid. I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.”

Martinez then proceeded to use slurs against the eight-year-old child, saying in Spanish “Parece changuito” or in English, “He’s like a monkey.” Other slurs and derogatory comments followed, with Martinez proceeding to disparage whites, blacks, and indigenous members of the Latino community.

Following the two resignations, the LAPD opened up an investigation in late October 2022 into who leaked the recording. As the recording broke California’s law stating that all parties need to consent to being recorded, both civil and criminal penalties are possible for the leaker.

It wasn’t until July 2023 that the leaker was found, when they ended up being questioned by the LAPD. However, it was later revealed that it was two people: Santos Leon, the former Director of Finance for the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, and another employee at the union, Karla Vasquez. In January of this year, the LAPD sent the case to Los Angeles County prosecutors, who began looking into filing charges against both of them. In addition, de Leon also sued the couple for invasion of privacy.

Charges against the leakers

However, during the weekend, a memo was released, stating that the prosecutors would not be filing charges against the two former union workers. They found that the charges didn’t warrant being felonies. In addition, neither of the two had a criminal record, meaning that any punishment against them would likely be far less than what they were used to. The memo did however acknowledge that a crime had indeed taken place, still warranting some sort of legal action.

“The evidence indicates that a crime was committed,” said the memo.

As a result, L.A. County prosecutors sent the matter to the city, with the L.A. City Attorney’s office now handling the case. In addition, all charges are now dropped to misdemeanors as the nature of the crime didn’t warrant a felony. As of Monday afternoon, the City Attorney’s office has not commented on the case or what the current status of it is.

Legal experts told the Globe on Monday that the case would likely be prosecuted at the city level with misdemeanors charges. While it is likely that some charges will stick, they noted that it is not a sure thing with this case.

“If it was a slam dunk, the County would have been all over it,” explained legal advisor Hector Blanco to the Globe on Monday. “Instead, we have a situation where the people being charged turned out to be a regular workers who never committed a crime larger than a traffic ticket before in a situation that was far from being a felony. They just couldn’t file charges. Now it’s down to the city, with misdemeanors.

“There will most likely be a case for this still, but the memo knocked the wind out of the case’s sail. The people who helped bring about one of the largest scandals in LA political history and reshuffled the dynamics of politics in the city have misdemeanors. There’s a lot of people very upset and a lot of people very happy at seeing the way this is going.”

More of the L.A. City Attorney’s case is to come out soon.