Newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has been listening intently for more than a year — to frustrated prosecutors, law enforcement officials and injured victims of crime.

And now, in just over two weeks, he plans to incorporate their views as he rapidly moves the nation’s largest local prosecutor’s office beyond what he describes as the “failed social experiment” of current prosecutor George Gascón.

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor elected in a landslide victory on Tuesday, Nov. 5, is vowing to immediately roll back the blanket release policies enacted by his progressive predecessor. These include Gascón’s most controversial directives barring prosecutors charge minors as adultsfiling sentence enhancements, seeking the death penalty, attending parole hearings, and requesting cash bail for felony and nonviolent felony defendants.

But Hochman insists that doesn’t mean all of Gascón’s ideas were wrong.

Rather, he plans to take a “tough middle ground” approach to justice, eschewing political ideologies and giving prosecutors the authority to carefully scrutinize each case, focusing on fairness and accountability for defendants. victims and victims’ families.

“The tough middle looks at each case differently,” he said in an interview with the Southern California News Group. “You have to work within the (justice) system and respect everyone’s rights.”

Nationally, progressive “reform” candidates lost in 13 of the top 25 district attorney races in recent elections — even in liberal strongholds, according to New York Post.

The results suggest that even Democrats wanted to move on from what they perceived as Gascón’s soft-on-crime policies. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, is winning Los Angeles County by 33 percentage points in her unsuccessful race against President-elect Donald Trump, but Gascón is losing to Hochman by 20 points.

The prosecutor’s office declined to comment on Hochman’s plans for his administration.

Optimism, pessimism

Michele Hanisee, president of the Association of Assistant District Attorneys, said prosecutors are encouraged by Hochman’s plans. “We hope that this approach will give us room to resolve cases more fairly so that they best suit the defendant, the victim, the crime and the circumstances,” she said.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents about 9,000 sworn LAPD officers, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that communities and victims of crime “paid a heavy price” for Gascón’s “experiment” .

“The nightmare is over,” the post read. “Now there is hope that we can return personal accountability to the criminal justice system.”

Larry Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, said he doesn’t think Hochman will have much success in shaking up the status quo.

“The research shows that there is actually very little evidence that electing tough-on-crime prosecutors has much of an effect on crime,” said Rosenthal, himself a former federal prosecutor. “I don’t see any particular reason to believe that Los Angeles County is about to be an exception.”

Rosenthal also expects Hochman to seek longer prison terms in more cases than Gascón, which could lead to higher charges.

“Ultimately, it will require California taxpayers to pay very high costs for housing elderly inmates and for their medical care,” he said. “Prosecutors are rarely held accountable for costing taxpayers 20 or 30 years down the line.”

Gascón was chosen as the pioneer

Gascón’s general directives, introduced at his inauguration in 2020, have become a focal point of his administration — and his Achilles’ heel.

Progressives announced that Gascón is a pioneer, while at least two dozen deputy prosecutors sued him, claiming they faced reprisals for defying orders they considered illegal. Gascón also received votes of no confidence from elected officials in numerous Los Angeles County cities and rejected two recall attempts who failed to gather enough valid petition signatures.

Cristine Soto DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for prosecutorial turnover and reform-oriented policy solutions, urged Hochman to reconsider overturning Gascón’s directives.

“Now that the campaign is over, we hope the new DA will take a close look at the work and not make drastic rollbacks,” DeBerry said in an email. “A look at the data will show that limiting extreme sentencing is good for public safety and good for taxpayers. DA-elect Hochman has committed to a balanced approach and a total withdrawal will not achieve this goal.”

Detailed reforms

Hochman argues that while Gascón considers himself an ardent progressive, he has not advanced policies that reasonably serve all segments of the criminal justice system.

“In order to achieve real and effective criminal justice reform, we have to make progress for all people in the system,” said Hochman, who noted that Gascón proposed some good ideas but executed them poorly.

Hochman, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney general during the administration of President George W. Bush and as chairman of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, opposes mass incarceration and acknowledges that prison is not right for every defendant. He said some low-level offenders could benefit more from community service or diversion programs.

However, Hochman has drawn a line in the sand when it comes to fentanyl crisis, vowing to aggressively prosecute and seek long prison terms for “poisoners” who in 2023 were responsible for 1,970 deaths in Los Angeles County.

Hochman also promised a comprehensive campaign to educate middle and high school students and parents about the lethal threat of fentanyl, said he would aggressively prosecute thieves who bust them and plans to restore the hardcore gang unit in the district attorney’s office that Gascón. HAVENS in 2021.

As for the death penalty, Hochman said it should only be sought in the rarest of cases, such as the killing of police officers, school massacres and deadly terrorist attacks.

He said he may also ask the court for more time to review the high-profile case of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who spent more than 30 years in prison for killing their parents in 1989 before a conviction supported by Gascón. hearing next month.

Will not hire public defenders

Hochman said that, unlike Gascón, he will not be hiring Advocates from Los Angeles County Office of Public Defense. “I will do my best to bring in people with the most experience and the highest level of integrity and leadership skills and then use those skill sets in the most advantageous way possible,” he added.

Earlier this week, Hochman named veteran Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Katz, whom he has known for more than 40 years, as his chief of staff. Katz, who joined the district attorney’s office in 1990, will be responsible for overseeing all operations.