My goal of integrating common-sense reforms into the legal system is an ongoing effort but one that is well worth the fight. Reform means reducing the major drivers of mass incarceration while at the same time increasing victims services, developing community partnerships, collecting better data so we can be guided by long-term solutions not short-term Band-Aids, and always working to be in dialogue with the community so people know what reform means and what it doesn’t.

As Los Angeles District Attorney, I am working to reform the system by ending mass incarceration, holding law enforcement accountable, addressing sexual assault and harassment in our community, protecting workers, prosecuting polluters, and investing in trauma-informed support for victims and families. I am focused on public safety, while also reforming the overburdened and outdated prison pipeline. I have made reforming our criminal justice system a top priority and I place community first when prosecuting crimes, while balancing the need for community safety that I’ve worked for in my forty years as a police officer and prosecutor. Because we need a system that is about more than punishment, we need a system that holistically addresses root causes of crime and aims to make our county both fair and safe.

For generations, severe and unbalanced sentencing policies have had a devastating impact on Black, Latino and Indigenous Californians, including the use of many excessively harsh sentencing enhancements that disproportionately harm people in low-income communities of color, keeping people in prison long after they pose any safety risk to their community and contributing to our massive and aging prison population. Los Angeles County residents want to see the government implementing solutions that actually work; for violent crimes and other serious circumstances, we still use the same prosecutorial tools that have always existed.

For non-violent misdemeanors directly related to mental illness, homelessness and addiction, we now have many more tools to help address the underlying issue while also pursuing accountability. Even as we deal more appropriately with mental health and addiction, and misdemeanor cases associated with addiction, we continue to take very seriously those misdemeanors where violence, and especially domestic violence, occur.

Prop. 47 — which I was proud to co-author and which received the backing of nearly 60% of California voters — reduced simple possession of drugs for personal use from a felony to a misdemeanor, and increased the felony theft threshold from $400 to $950 to keep pace with inflation. The goal of Prop. 47 was to help reduce our prison population here in California. Reclassifying certain crimes as misdemeanors rather than felonies does not mean those crimes are not prosecuted. They are and they should be. Some believe that this law passed ten years ago is the cause for an increase in property theft. This is false. Studies show Prop. 47 and similar laws in dozens of other states do not increase property crime.

I believe the money bail system is inherently unequal and wrong and I strongly support bail reform. I was the first prosecutor in the state to call for an end to money bail in 2012. Let me be clear: The court’s decision to end cash bail does not mean we have given away our ability to keep someone detained before trial if we believe they are a risk to their community or may flee. It means the court now looks at the actual threat level a person poses when deciding whether or not to release someone before their trial, not just the amount of money in their bank account.

When I can find the time, I love to cook. And no matter what, I make time for family.

Gascón has lost the trust of the public, his own prosecutors, and law enforcement. As District Attorney, the No. 1 thing I’ll change will be restoring that trust by going back to enforcing the law, not just the laws that fit a personal political agenda. I’m running as an Independent and will make prosecutorial decisions based solely on the facts and the law and not political ideology. I’ll lead by example based on my over 34 years’ criminal justice experience.

Unlike Gascón who has never personally prosecuted or defended a criminal case, as a federal prosecutor, I prosecuted over 100 cases, from violent gang members, narcotics traffickers, and money launderers to corrupt police officers and public officials, and tax and bank defrauders. I led environmental crimes and disaster fraud task forces. In addition, I was presidentially appointed/unanimously Senate confirmed as the U.S. Assistant Attorney General leading the Tax Division with a $100 million budget and 350 lawyers prosecuting cases all over the nation. As both a former prosecutor and defense attorney, I’ll bring credibility in both worlds. 

Gascón believes in blanket policies, a lazy form of decision-making that demonstrates distrust in his prosecutors, which is why 97.8% of them supported his recall. I reject blanket policies on both extremes of mass incarceration and Gascón’s decarceration special directives. I’ll focus on the "hard middle," an individualized analysis of the defendant, the crime committed, and the impact on the victim to determine who the true threats are to our safety and those who aren’t. I’ll restore the law enforcement partnership that Gascón has decimated. I have unique credibility in this regard since I have personally defended law enforcement officers and co-founded the LA Sheriff’s Foundation to bring needed resources to the LASD but have also personally prosecuted rogue officers as well.

In many ways, our justice system needs reform, however not the type of “reform” Gascón has brought that has endangered our public safety. Instead, we must sensibly balance the priority of public safety with ensuring the system acts fairly and without any bias. Gascón’s “reforms” have released violent and serious offenders before completing their sentences and prohibited prosecution of such offenders to the full extent of the law. In addition, these pro-criminal, anti-victim “reforms” have banned prosecutors from representing victims at parole hearings.

Compared to the year before he entered office (2019), the current crime statistics are up in most categories. Importantly, polling shows that Angelenos — over 60% — feel less safe today than before Gascón became DA. Fentanyl murders are the top killer of young adults; and smash-and-grab and home robberies occur on an almost daily basis. Criminals are taking advantage of laws favoring them. My reforms: eliminate Gascón’s blanket, pro-criminal policies in favor of “hard middle” policies of individualized crime analysis; allow enhancements justified by the evidence; institute a risk-based assessment for bail; have prosecutors accompany victims to parole hearings; and address crimes generated by those with serious mental illness and drug addictions. As for fentanyl murderers, Gascón has refused to prosecute these fentanyl poison peddlers for murder, even those who are serial offenders. As District Attorney, I will fully prosecute as murderers those who knowingly sell fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs that result in deaths, lead a local-state-federal task force to target the fentanyl chain of sellers and suppliers, and work with local agencies to launch a massive education effort in schools warning students and parents of the dangers of fentanyl.

I reject blanket policies, like those of the current District Attorney, which preclude prosecutors from considering all legally available penalties, supported by the evidence, for crimes committed, such as sentence enhancements for using a firearm during the commission of a crime and/or special circumstances. The current DA’s policies send an incentivizing message to criminals, for example, to use a firearm in the commission of a crime since they face no additional penalty for doing so.

Instead, I believe in the “hard middle” that uses the 1,000s of years of collective experience of the District Atty.’s Office’s over 900 prosecutors, its investigators, and its law enforcement partners to make individualized determinations based on the evidence and the crime(s) committed, the impact on the victim(s), and the defendant’s background and criminal history. Under this approach, criminals will no longer think that if they commit a crime and certain sentencing enhancements apply, that such enhancements will not be brought. As for prosecuting misdemeanors, my central philosophy is that those who commit crimes will be held accountable. There will be no blanket policy stating that anyone gets a free pass no matter what misdemeanor or the number of misdemeanors they commit. Nor will there be a blanket policy requiring jail for any misdemeanor committed. Instead, I will use my over 34 years’ criminal justice experience as a prosecutor and defense attorney, working with over 900 prosecutors and law enforcement, to calibrate proportional accountability for every misdemeanor crime committed.

I’d support a significant modification or potential repeal of Prop. 47. When Gascón co-authored Prop. 47, with the misleading title the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” he advocated that releasing drug offenders and thieves from prison and ending prosecution of many of those crimes would make communities safer. He was completely wrong. As Los Angeles County District Attorney, Gascón has doubled down on this philosophy. This proposition swept too broadly and has created many unintended consequences. For instance, possession of highly addictive, dangerous narcotics like fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine are now treated as misdemeanors as if they were marijuana. As a result, there is no longer an incentive for repeat offenders to go to drug court diversion programs to deal with their addiction and expunge their criminal record.

Consequently, drug courts, which used to graduate scores of people who had completed drug rehabilitation programs, have dried up since no one goes through the program and Gascón refuses to prosecute. As far as property crimes go, the increase of the felony threshold from $400 to $950 under Prop. 47, and Gascón’s blanket policies for no or lax prosecutions, have led to an explosion of thefts just under $950 and created lawlessness that has led to more serious crimes being committed, like smash-and-grab robberies and follow-home robberies. The solution is to modify or roll back parts of Prop. 47 by increasing the penalties dealing with possession of fentanyl and other dangerous and addictive drugs to reinvigorate drug diversion courts and bring back the $400 threshold for property crimes and/or allow for the aggregation of property crimes over a set time. Without reform, deaths from drug overdoses will continue to set new records, thefts will continue to be a fixture on social media, and Los Angeles County will keep losing tax-paying residents to other states.

The focus of the bail system should be on determining what bail can eliminate or significantly reduce the risk of a particular defendant committing future crimes if released or the risk of a person absconding and not showing up for court appearances. The current cash bail system has flaws but need not be completely abandoned to fix it. Those flaws stem from the lack of risk assessment. Since the cash bail system imposes cash bail based on a schedule determined by the crime committed rather than a risk analysis, it releases on bail some who otherwise pose a risk of danger to the community or flight and denies bail to those who pose neither risk but lack the funds to meet a minimal bail. The current zero cash bail system is not the solution because too often it allows criminals to be cited and released (and never arrested) or arrested and immediately released for crimes affecting public safety.

The solution is to implement a 24/7 magistrate review of arrestees and build up a pretrial services department that could provide the magistrate both with information concerning appropriate bail (defendant’s work experience, prior record, etc.) and then provide supervision to ensure that the defendant complies with his/her bail conditions and appears for future court hearings. I would also work to institute certain additions to cash provisions in bail like third-party affidavits of surety (secured and unsecured), placement in treatment facilities, work requirements, etc. to provide a means to obtain bail granted by a magistrate.

I enjoy anything that involves a racket — tennis, paddle tennis, squash, pickleball. Also, my family and I have raised funds for and personally delivered over 1,500 wheelchairs through the American Wheelchair Mission to those in need.