Los Angeles DA aide arraigned on improper confidential law enforcement records use charges

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A top aide to Los Angeles County district attorney George Gascon was arraigned Thursday on charges that she illegally used confidential records of sheriff deputy misconduct that she obtained while working for her previous job in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Diana Teran, through her attorney, pleaded not guilty to 11 criminal counts, after a superior court judge rejected her demurrer - a legal argument that the charges made against her don't constitute a crime.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the complaint against Teran in April, accusing her in an arrest warrant affidavit, of accessing "over 1,600 statutorily-protected peace officer files" while still working at the Sheriff's Department in 2018.

After joining the District Attorney's office in 2021, Teran reportedly "repeatedly used data from those LASD personnel files and internal emails and documents in a surreptitious attempt to add peace officer names" to certain databases the department keeps of police officers and sheriff's deputies who have been accused of misconduct.

Prosecutors are required by law to maintain these databases; if one of the officers is called to testify in a criminal trial, prosecutors must inform the defense attorneys about the officer's misconduct, as part of discovery.

Teran, according to the affidavit, sent an email to someone working under her to research 33 deputy sheriffs for possible inclusion in the database. State prosecutors say that Teran only knew about the 33 names from her time at the Sheriff's Department.

Teran's attorney, James Spertus, sought to have the charges against his client dismissed on the grounds that what she did wasn't illegal, that she was simply performing her duties as head of the department that prosecutes police misconduct.

"This is just talking about basic common sense," said Spertus. "Is it a crime to do your job internally at the DA's office for the county when you have information in your head?"

He later added: "Of course this isn't a crime. What am I missing?"

Spertus also argued that the accusation of misconduct made against the deputies were already in the public domain - that is, they were either in various court filings, or on the LA Sheriff's Department's website. A 2018 law passed by the California legislature requires police agencies to make certain disciplinary records public.

"This is public information," Spertus said. "We are not talking about protected information."

State prosecutors, in their opposition to the demurrer, argued that Teran had only learned about the 33 officers from reading their files while still employed by the Sheriff's Department.

"What is the source of the information?" Deputy Attorney General Charles Chung asked. "Not the thing itself, but where did it come from? If it came from protected personnel records, it is confidential."

He said all but two of the names were confidential and unknown to the public.

"To the extent that there was information on the Sheriff's website, that may have been done in error," Chung said. "That's something that warrants further investigation."

Chung's colleague, Christopher Sanchez, compared what Teran did to a software engineer hired by a startup who uses code from his old job.

At any rate, the two deputy attorney generals argued, the matter wasn't ripe for the demurrer stage - and Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo agreed. She said demurrers could only be sustained based on the "four corners" of the complaint itself.

Spertus argued that the judge could consider the search warrant affidavit, which the complaint referred to, but Olmedo rejected that argument.

"The court believes that the 'four corners of the complaint' are related to the complaint itself and not the affidavit," the judge said. She suggested that Spertus could make his arguments again at the preliminary hearing, which is scheduled for August 7.

After the hearing, Spertus said the ruling surprised him, but hoped the case would be dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage.

Teran's boss, George Gascon, is among the most controversial political figures in Southern California.

Elected on a platform of criminal justice reform, Gascon pledged to reduce sentences and step up the prosecution of police officers for misconduct. Many of policies spurred a backlash, particularly from police unions and from his own rank-and-file prosecutors.

Gascon is currently facing a tough reelection battle in the November general election.

Many democratic politicians have sought to distance themselves with Gascon, who in some circles has become synonymous with progressive overreach. Some have speculated that Bonta's prosecution of Teran is a bid to curry favor with police unions. Bonta is considering a 2026 run for governor.

When asked why he thought Bonta had field the charges against Teran, Spertus replied, "I think the AG never took criminal law in law school. I can't figure out why an LA County law enforcement employee is being prosecuted for populating an internal database."

He added: "Their theory is that they own the information."

Source: Courthouse News Service