Top Advisor To LA DA Gascon Arrested…Stole Files…Delayed No Charges To Hurt Villanueva's Re-Election

One of LA County District Attorney George Gascon's top employees, Assistant District Attorney of Ethics and Integrity Operations Diana Teran, has been arrested on 11 felony charges related to the "unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily-protected peace officer files." According to a press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Teran "accessed computer data including numerous confidential peace officer files in 2018, while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and, after joining the LADA in January 2021, impermissibly used that data at the LADA." Sources familiar with the events described in the warrant and the investigation have given RedState additional details. The sources requested anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Starting in June 2018, when Alex Villanueva made a good showing in the primary election for LA County Sheriff against his former boss, then-incumbent Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Teran improperly accessed and downloaded the personnel files of Villanueva and other LASD employees who supported his campaign. Sources say this was done at the direction of county Inspector General Max Huntsman, who is also currently under investigation by AG Bonta. Teran's actions ramped up in November 2018 when underdog Villanueva unseated McDonnell, marking the first time an incumbent Sheriff lost re-election in 104 years. The weekend before Villanueva was sworn in, according to sources, Huntsman sent Teran into the Sheriff's office with an external hard drive and instructions to gather additional personnel files.

About a month after Villanueva took office he got wind of what had happened and alerted the California AG's office and the FBI. The FBI told Villanueva's office they'd provide technical assistance but there was nothing they could really do, and the AG's office gave Villanueva's office the go-ahead to investigate themselves. Villanueva then tasked a deputy who was an IT expert with investigating the breach. Sources say that expert found that Teran had improperly accessed and copied thousands of personnel files, which accounts were used to access the system, and found emails instructing which files to obtain and when. That information was turned over to the AG's office "several years ago," according to the source, eventually leading to today's arrest. Sources speaking to RedState say they cannot share specific examples of how Teran impermissibly used the data once she was in Gascon's office at this time.

Teran, who oversees prosecutions of law enforcement for Gascon’s office, was previously accused in a whistleblower lawsuit of purposely delaying decisions to not file charges against LASD deputies in high profile use of force incidents in an effort to hurt then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s re-election chances.

• More at: RedState - Top Advisor to LA DA Gascon Arrested, Allegedly Stole LA Sheriff Deputy Personnel Files
https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2024/04/24/breaking-la-county-assistant-da-arrested-allegedly-stole-personnel-files-of-sheriff-deputies-n2173273