Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and a deputy district attorney all won a round in court Wednesday when a judge granted their motions to dismiss defamation allegations filed by a lawyer who says she was demoted for her support of former top prosecutor George Gascon’s reform policies.
Former Deputy District Attorney Tiffiny Blacknell, who is Black, also alleges she was targeted due to her race, age and gender. She filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the county, the District Attorney’s Office, Hochman and Deputy District Attorney John Lewin.
Hochman and Lewin both contended that any comments they made were protected statements of opinion.
On Wednesday, Judge Richard Fruin ruled in favor of the county, Hochman and also Lewin, a deputy district attorney who previously filed and settled his own lawsuit against the county in which he maintained he suffered a backlash over his criticisms of Gascon’s reforms.
Fruin additionally tossed Blacknell’s causes of action against Lewin for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The dismissal motions were brought under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, which is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
Blacknell, 49, is a former deputy public defender who was hired by the county in 2002. Her suit states that her transfer to the District Attorney’s Office by Gascon and her filling of various roles there, including chief of staff, “placed her in the crosshairs for attack” by those who opposed Gascon’s attempts to make changes.
“Blacknell `quickly became the target of intense and unfounded attacks’ from within the prosecutor’s office that came from the mainstream as well as the social media, ranging from the mundane to outright threats,” her attorneys wrote.
“In particular, Ms. Blacknell’s vocal opposition to police brutality and the historic failure of the (District Attorney’s Office) to hold law enforcement accountable for brutality and killings triggered fierce backlash from those that opposed the (agency’s) evolving values under DA Gascon.”
Lewin called Blacknell “corrupt,” “crazy,” a “police-hating nut job” and “unqualified” while also contending that “two dogs were more qualified to be a prosecutor,” her suit alleges. In announcing his campaign, Hochman called Blacknell “the worst chief of staff in Los Angeles County history” and the most “unqualified, pro-criminal chief of staff in Los Angeles County history,” the suit further contends.
Blacknell suffered a “cardiac event” in October 2024, sought psychiatric treatment, took a leave of absence a month later and was demoted by Hochman to a subordinate position back with the Public Defender’s Office, according to her suit.
In a sworn declaration in support of the anti-SLAPP motion, Hochman defended his remarks concerning Blacknell.
“When I used phrases such as `worst chief of staff’ or `most unqualified, pro-criminal chief of staff,’ I intended those as political value judgments and rhetorical characterizations in the context of public debate, not as literal or provably true/false factual assertions,” Hochman said.
Hochman further said his opinions were based on public information available at the time, including Blacknell’s own public statements and appearances, media coverage and other materials in the public domain. Hochman added that he did not “author, direct, edit, approve, encourage or coordinate any public statements” by Lewin about Blacknell.
For his part, Lewin says that in one of his Facebook posts he referred to Blacknell by quoting her prior public statements that she is a “self-admitted looter” who stated that “the police are trained to kills us,” that the LAPD is a “barbarian occupying army” and that prison is “obsolete” and should be abolished.
“I also expressed my opinion that Ms. Blacknell hates the very police officers and prosecutors she works with,” Lewin says, adding that he based his opinion on Blacknell’s quoted public statements, some of them coming in a posting in which she expressed frustration over the fatal shooting of a Black girl, Latasha Harlins, and the police beating of Rodney King in the early 1990s.