L.A. D.A. Gascn made strides in prosecuting police. Would a Hochman win change that? [View all]

But in his four years as the county’s top prosecutor, Gascón has been one of California’s most aggressive pursuers of law enforcement misconduct, making him an ally for criminal justice reform advocates — one some fear will be lost if the latest poll numbers prove true.

Nathan Hochman is heavily favored to oust Gascón from office on Nov. 5, and the former federal prosecutor is the preferred candidate of law enforcement throughout L.A. County. He’s raked in millions from police unions and often talks about restoring the relationship between the district attorney’s office and local cops....

Hochman has scoffed at suggestions that he would be beholden to his police backers, often repeating a canned line that “nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop.”

“At the end of the day what I will bring is a sensibility that I’m both a defense attorney and a prosecutor. Someone who has actually prosecuted police officers,” he said during a recent debate. “When I speak to police officers I make it crystal clear, ‘When you cross the line, you will be prosecuted.’”

But Hochman, who worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles for years before becoming a defense attorney, hasn’t prosecuted a police officer in nearly three decades. Gascón, meanwhile, has spent three terms in San Francisco and L.A. overseeing crucial filing decisions in use-of-force cases.




https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-31/george-gascon-prosecuting-police-nathan-hochman-los-angeles-district-attorney-race