A deputy district attorney in Los Angeles is suing her boss at the last-minute as he faces a tough re-election contest Tuesday.
Infighting between Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon and his own office could continue to cost county taxpayers millions of dollars, even if he loses.
Gascon faces roughly two dozen similar retaliation lawsuits from rank-and-file prosecutors in his office who have blown the whistle on actions they see as soft on crime, unfair to victims and potentially illegal.
Fellow Deputy District Attorney Shawn Randolph was awarded a $1.5 million settlement last year after she sued for retaliation, arguing she had been transferred to a lesser position after raising concerns about Gascon policies that may have violated victims' rights under Marsy's Law. Another prosecutor, Richard Doyle, received an $800,000 settlement in his own whistleblower lawsuit.
Gascon was recently deposed in another retaliation lawsuit brought by John Lewin, the deputy DA who put "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst" subject and real estate heir Robert Durst behind bars.
In September, the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys as a whole sued Gascon for allegedly improperly denying or ignoring public records requests.
The most recent lawsuit is from Tatiana Chahoian, another deputy DA who voiced concerns about a memo urging prosecutors to downplay street racing cases after a wealthy Los Angeles socialite, Rebecca Grossman, killed two boys and narrowly missed striking their mother and a third child in a crosswalk.
In response, Gascon allegedly sent an armed officer to her house with a disciplinary note, blocked her from routine promotions and assigned an "overwhelming workload" of 60 to 100 cases per day. Chahoian felt so physically ill from the alleged retaliation that she went into poor health, dropped to just 89 pounds and had to take multiple medical leaves to recover, according to her lawsuit.
"To illustrate this demanding schedule, Chahoian’s presence was required in so many places that she could not even use the restroom without first asking permission," her lawyers wrote in a civil complaint.
After suffering a seizure during her drive home from work, she obtained a doctor's note saying she shouldn't drive for more than 15 minutes at a time. Her superiors allegedly forced her to continue making her 55-minute commute for a month before they transferred her to another position, where she immediately thrived, according to the lawsuit.
Gascon's head deputy for charge evaluation, John Harlan, in an internal memo urged prosecutors not to pursue criminal cases against suspects accused of street racing, reckless driving and street takeovers that don't result in injuries, according to Chahoian's lawsuit.
Instead, prosecutors were told to consider "prefiling deferral of prosecution" — which her lawyers likened to "a stern warning with minimal accountability."
‘WOKE’ DA SUED BY HIS OWN OFFICE FOR ALLEGEDLY PROTECTING ETHICS CHIEF CHARGED WITH FELONIES
The memo encouraged prosecutors to "act contrary to the law," according to Chahoian, who raised her concerns in a local TV interview after receiving it.
"It's like saying if somebody shoots at somebody else, and they're a bad shot, and they miss, we're not going to file charges because nothing happened," she told FOX 11 Los Angeles at the time, adding that the internal notice left her in "a state of shock."
Read the lawsuit.
Days after the interview aired, an armed DA's office investigator showed up on her doorstep with a disciplinary warning that would normally have been sent by email, she told Fox News Digital.
According to the lawsuit, Gascon's office also passed her over for a promotion in retaliation for her public remarks.
"For almost four years now, George Gascon has lied to the people he took an oath to serve," Chahoian said through her legal team over the weekend. "His misguided policies have resulted in increased violence, and amplified a rhetoric of ‘criminals are the victims, and victims are an inconvenience.’"
Gascon is facing independent candidate Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, on Election Day. He has received endorsements from the deputy DA union and many individual prosecutors who have sued Gascon for alleged retaliation or taken issue with his policies.
"Ms. Chahoian acted in the public interest by voicing concerns about prosecutorial policies that endanger lives; this case underscores her courage to uphold those values even in the face of Gascon’s attempts to intimidate her into silence," one of her attorneys, Anthony Fusaro, said in a statement.
"By consistently prioritizing the interests of offenders over the lives and safety of Los Angeles residents, Gascon has disregarded his duty to uphold justice—and his response to criticism shows a disturbing reliance on intimidation rather than constructive engagement with his prosecutors to protect the public he’s sworn to serve."
A spokesperson for Gascon's office declined to discuss the lawsuit.
"Our office does not comment on pending litigation or personnel matters," she told Fox News Digital.
