A former chief of staff for Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a new lawsuit that he demoted her in retaliation for disagreeing with his policies.
The complaint against the county and the DA filed Tuesday by Gregory W. Smith and Diana Wang Wells of the Law Offices of Gregory W. Smith LLP in Beverly Hills is one of several by current and former prosecutors accusing Gascón of retaliation for their opposition to what they allege are unlawful policies since he took office in December 2020.
Greg Risling, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said there could be no comment on the lawsuit as it is a personnel matter.
The plaintiff, Assistant D.A. Victoria L. Adams “has been banished onto an island where she has no meaningful work to perform, no supervisory responsibility and no work-related communication with anyone in the office except her secretary,” the complaint said. “Plaintiff will never recover from this completely humiliating demotion, which will be the tragic end of her dedicated and accomplished nearly four-decade-long history of service to the county of Los Angeles.” Adams v. County of Los Angeles, 22STCV37350 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Nov. 29, 2022).
According to the complaint, Adams was brought onto Gascón’s Executive Management Team when he was sworn in. Shortly thereafter, he named her his chief of staff.
“As the only member of the Executive Management Team with significant legal and operational experience, plaintiff repeatedly disclosed … that the various Special Directives Gascón had issued were not lawful,” the complaint read.
These included a directive which placed restrictions on the prosecution of juveniles, another that would have allowed the post-conviction DNA testing of a deceased inmate and an initiative to provide victim services to people injured or killed by the police — regardless of the circumstances surrounding the encounter. In some cases, critics said, those injured or killed were criminals attacking the police or others.
The complaint alleges that, in retaliation for her input, Gascón stripped Adams of her position as chief of staff before ultimately demoting her from Assistant District Attorney of Special Operations to Assistant District Attorney of Special Projects.
“Even though plaintiff holds the title of ‘ADA of Special Projects,’ in reality all but one project assigned to plaintiff are inactive, theoretical or obsolete,” the complaint stated. “In her current role, plaintiff does not supervise any attorneys, has no oversight of cases, provides no input on any policy matters and essentially conducts only busy work and/or clerical work.”
The complaint claims whistle blower retaliation as its sole cause of action, and seeks restitution for health care expenses, loss of wages and other damages.
Smith’s firm has represented several of the other plaintiffs who have sued over similar claims.
A December 2021 complaint by Shawn Randolph, former head deputy DA for the office’s Juvenile Division, alleged that she was denied a branch division head deputy post near her home in retaliation for her objections to Gascón’s directives, instead being given the what she called the “dead-end” position of heading the parole division. Randolph v. County of Los Angeles, 21STCV36796 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Oct. 5, 2021).
In a more recent complaint from June of this year, former deputy DA for the office’s Sex Crimes Unit Michael Matoba alleged that, because of his objections to Gascón’s blanket exclusions of special circumstance allegations, he was transferred to the Elder Abuse Division, which requires nationwide travel and, according to the lawsuit, is unlikely to lead to promotion. Matoba v. County of Los Angeles, 22STCV17988 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed June 1, 2022).
In answers to both of these complaints, the county generally denied all allegations while listing affirmative defenses including failure to state a cause of action, failure to exhaust and express statutory liability.
Attorneys with Sanders Roberts LLP, which represents the county in these and other retaliation claims involving Gascón’s office, could not be reached by email or phone for comment by press time. The county is represented by Shawn P. Thomas, Jessica M. Neighbors, Matthew D. Barzman, Jong Hyun Lee and Reginald Roberts Jr., all of the firm’s Los Angeles office.
Smith declined to comment on the cases, as well as the total number of them his firm is involved with, in a phone call on Thursday.
Eric Siddall, vice president of Los Angeles’ Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said the lawsuits “speak to George Gascón’s incompetence and lack of leadership.”
“They prove that he’d rather be flattered than challenged,” Siddall said in an email on Thursday, “that he intentionally ignores the law to advance his ideology, that he doesn’t listen to experienced prosecutors, that he promotes political allies who serve him while punishing career civil servants who serve the public, and that he demonizes those who disagree with him.”
Asked for a response to Siddall’s allegations, Tiffiny Blacknell, director of the Bureau of Communications for Gascón’s office, said in an emailed statement: “The district attorney was elected with a mandate to reform the criminal legal system in Los Angeles County. Over the last two years he has made changes to policy, office leadership, and community engagement to fill his obligation to make the justice system more equitable in Los Angeles. This includes hiring an expert to lead victim services and the creation of advisory boards to make sure the community is invested in this work. He will continue to lead with this collaborative approach.”
