Gascon aide Diana Teran: Who’s Paying Who and For What?

Questions are swirling around the current status of alleged felon and top Los Angeles County District George Gascon aide Diana Teran, including whether or not her legal defense is being paid for by the taxpayer.

In the past month, the Globe, former DA (and currently strong backer of Gascon’s challenger Nathan Hochman) Steve Cooley, and pro bono victims rights’ attorney Kathleen Cady have all submitted public records requests regarding Teran status – all were met with ‘extension” notifications.

In April, Teran was charged by state Attorney General (and, presumably former, Gascon ally) Rob Bonta, alleging she illegally accessed LA County Sheriff’s deputies personnel files while she worked in that department as a “Constitutional Policing Advisor” in 2018.

All of the counts she was charged with bear the same April, 2021 date, which may be when she uploaded them in the DA’s office system and/or added it to the “Brady List,” a data base of sketchy officers the office maintains (most prosecutors maintain such a list just in case they have to rely on that officer in court, etc.)

When the charges were filed, Teran was Gascon’s “Ethics and Integrity Assistant District Attorney,” one of the top gigs in the DA’s office.

She then spent a couple days in jail until being released on a $50,000 bond. Her attorney, James Spertus, has stated the charges are ludicrous and that she accessed the information literally as part of her job, making the charges legally impossible.  He did not reply to an email requesting a comment for this article.

The question now is what is Teran doing? Is she still working there? Is she getting paid? What involvement does the DA himself have in the case?  These questions have been sparked by county scuttlebutt, but are quite serious. If in fact, for example, Teran’s defense is being paid for by the DA’s office, that could clearly represent a conflict of interest and impact how she handles her case.

The DA’s office declined to comment, referring the Globe to LA County Counsel’s Office to file a public records request.  The request was as follows:  

1. 1. Is the DA’s office paying the legal bills?
   2. If not the DAs office itself, is the county paying the legal bills?
   3. If they are being paid, is it appropriate to do so?
   4. Is there not a legal conflict of interest for the office to pay the fees as the allegations point to her misconduct in the office?
   5. Is there not at least an ethical conflict in paying her bills, i.e. could that not influence her testimony/claims/assertions in her case when it comes to whether or not she was  acting under the DA’s direction?

In response, the County Counsel said it needed more time to look through records and make a determination due to the “unusual circumstance” of the matter.

Unusual circumstances, by state law, are the following:

1. The need to search for and collect the requested records from field facilities or other establishments that are separate from the office processing the request.
2. The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records that are demanded in a single request.
3. The need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another agency having substantial interest in the determination of the request or among two or more components of the agency having substantial subject matter interest therein.
4. The need to compile data, to write programming language or a computer program, or to construct a computer report to extract data. 

Government agencies do have the right to extend out records requests response for at least 14 days and significantly more time if they say they need it (November election, anyone?)

Cooley requested Teran’s current salary and benefits and whether she is currently employed and being paid. He, too, received notice of an extension.

Cady also requested Teran’s status and pay, something she said “should only take five minutes,” but still got a time extension letter (both Cady’s and Cooley’s extensions end next week, so either the County has to release the information or request more time…again.)

Cady did ask for a number of other records she concedes will take time to sort through, including the following:

● Any and all records and/or communications with any member of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and Diana Teran regarding any matter. This includes all communication to or from Ms. Teran’s District Attorney email of dteran@da.lacounty.gov as well as any personal email(s) including but not limited to dteran@cox.net, and/or dmariateran@gmail.com as well as any texts to or from from her county cell phone(s) or personal cell phone.

● Any and all records and/or communications regarding Diana Teran’s access to any external, internal and/or confidential databases.

● Any and all records and/or communications regarding Diana Teran’s access to her county email.

● Any and all records and/or communications regarding Diana Teran’s access to her county issued cell phone.

The delays are frustrating, Cady said, but follow a pattern of Gascon refusing to turn over internal records, even to his own deputy district attorneys.

“Gascon appears to be engaging in a systemic refusal to turn over what the public has the right to know,”  Cady said.  “This scandalous lack of transparency is hiding what his office is doing.”