Are They on the Case or Not: Gascon’s Office Doesn’t Answer Grossman/Teran Questions

Exactly contrary to what George Gascon’s chief deputy district attorney Joseph Iniguez said Monday, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro have in fact been pulled off the sentencing and the fighting of the expected appeal in the murder conviction of Rebecca Grossman, said the deputy’s union.

When asked (twice) for a comment or clarification Wednesday by the Globe, Iniguez – one of Gascon’s favorites and the recipient, it seems, of a sloppy no-charge  from the state Attorney General’s office – the DA’s office said nothing.

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys (the ADDA, the union that represents to deputies,)  however, did have something to say.

“Deputy District Attorneys Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro have done excellent work on this challenging and heart-breaking case,” said the ADDA in a statement to the press.  “And we are grateful to their supervisor, Garrett Dameron, for supporting them in that effort. We are proud to work alongside each of them.”

At issue is the potential conflict of interest problem: Grossman’s attorney also represents Diana Teran, the Assistant District Attorney recently charged with 11 felonies by the state Attorney General Rob Bonta, an erstwhile progressive Gascon ally.

About three weeks ago, Teran was charged by State Attorney General Rob Bonta with 11 felony counts – Teran is alleged to have improperly accessed sheriff’s departments personnel records and then used said information illegally.

Teran was  “in the chain of command” on the Grossman case, so the three deputy district attorneys who handled the case – Castro, Gould, and their direct boss Garrett Dameron –  filed a motion with the court to have Spertus “conflicted” off of Grossman’s defense team. In other words, they felt Spertus could not appropriately represent both clients, in part because a basis for an appeal/new trial request in the Grossman case could be some form of allegation of prosecutorial misconduct, a standard, nearly boiler plate, assertion in such requests.  But if asserted, then Spertus could face the problem of cross-examining his own client.

Monday, Iniguez said this was not correct, that Castro and Gould were still on the case with only the supervision of the matter moved to a different office division.  Late Tuesday, the ADDA said that in fact Castro and Gould had been taken off the case, much to the anger of family of the two children killed by Grossman.

“The District Attorney’s decision to sideline these talented, dedicated, career prosecutors from this case on the eve of crucial post-trial motions undermines their efforts and those of the entire prosecution team,” said the ADDA.  “It is also hurtful and insensitive to the Iskander family.”

Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8, were run over by a speeding Grossman in a crosswalk in Westlake Village. Grossman was found guilty in February of two counts of murder but has maintained her innocence and plans to ask for a new trial.  She was scheduled to be sentenced in a few weeks, but the change in prosecutors could set that back by quite a bit.

“The District Attorney and his Chief Deputy, Joseph F. Iniguez, made this decision to pull the three prosecutors after they had filed a motion to have Spertus removed from the Grossman case if is to continue to represent Teran,” said the ADDA.

Spertus has said there is no conflict and that both his clients – Teran and Grossman – are innocent.

Gascon and Iniguez’s actions “raises many troubling questions” said the ADDA, including whether or not Teran would be obliged to answer under oath questions about office operations.

The issue of Gascon being a being an incompetent manager who played political favorites with the raft of people he brought in the from the public defender’s office to be prosecutors was a hallmark of many of his 11 opponents campaigns in the March primary.  The November challenger to emerge from that primary, Nathan Hochman, also did not hold back his criticism of Gascon.

“When Spertus was brought into the Grossman case in March, Teran and Gascon should have immediately disclosed to the court that Spertus was also Teran’s attorney, and let the court decide how to handle the conflict of interest,” said Hochman. “But that would mean disclosing publicly that Teran was under criminal investigation, and they selfishly tried to keep it secret. It was only after the AG charged Teran and Spertus began speaking to the media about her case that the conflict became apparent.”

In a 24-part X/Twitter thread, Hochman went into great detail as to why this issue is emblematic of Gascon’s incompetence or misshapen political and ideological priorities or favorites playing or …:

“Now that we know who is in Gascon’s inner-circle, here’s some relevant background about Gascon: He’s never prosecuted or defended a criminal case in his life. He’s never had a client,” Hochman wrote.  “So he’s catastrophically incompetent and woefully unqualified to make the complex and life-changing decisions that the District Attorney must make.”