Los Angeles County is seeking to block the pending deposition of former District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose testimony is being sought in a lawsuit brought by a prosecutor who alleges he was demoted from a prestigious position for speaking out against current District Attorney George Gascón’s sentencing recommendation directives.
County attorneys maintain the deposition scheduled for Tuesday should be postponed pending the outcome of a Dec. 26 hearing on whether a subpoena for Cooley’s appearance initiated by attorneys for Deputy District Attorney John Lewin should be quashed.
“This relief is especially important given that the underlying deposition subpoena seeks information that is not reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence,” the county lawyers argue in their court papers.
Despite Cooley having left the District Attorney’s Office in 2012, Lewin refused to withdraw the subpoena, maintaining that the county’s former top prosecutor was previously the plaintiff’s boss and can testify about his work, character and performance in the office, the county attorneys further write in their court papers filed Wednesday with Judge Steve Cochran.
“Patently, there is no legitimate reason to depose Mr. Cooley,” the county attorneys contend in their court papers.
In his suit brought in February 2023, Lewin alleges that he was retaliated against from 2020 to 2022 by Gascón , but Cooley district attorney in 2000-12, the county attorneys state in their pleadings.
Lewin contends that he was wrongfully transferred from his high-profile position in the Cold Case Unit of the Major Crimes Division to a job handling daily cases before a judge at the Inglewood courthouse, all because of his criticisms of Gascón’s sentencing directives implemented after Gascón took office in December 2020.
Although as recently as late May attorneys for Gascón said in an email that they were willing to discuss a date for their client’s deposition, no definitive availability time was offered despite ongoing requests dating back more than a year, according to Lewin’s attorneys’ court papers.
“George Gascón should be subjected to deposition because of his direct personal factual information regarding the implementation of the special directives, plaintiff’s complaints of these illegal policies and Gascón’s specific role in the retaliatory transfer of plaintiff, all of which are material to this action, exclusive to George Gascón and not available from any other source,” Lewin’s attorneys argue in their court papers.
The evidence supports the notion that Gascón had direct knowledge of Lewin’s complaints, was on notice of the plaintiff’s concern of a retaliatory transfer and was involved in the decision to relegate him a calendar deputy position, the Lewin lawyers further state in their pleadings.
Lewin in 2021 was awarded that year’s Ken Lamb Distinguished Achievement Award for his 27 years of service in the District Attorney’s Office, but he refused the office’s request to appear in a photo with Gascón because he worried doing so would be “construed as an endorsement of Gascón’s illegal policies,” Lewin’s attorneys state in their court papers.
Lewin was the lead prosecutor in the trial of Robert Durst, a New York real estate heir who was serving life in prison without parole, died in January 2022 at age 78 of natural causes. Durst was convicted in September 2021 of first-degree murder for the December 2000 shooting of Susan Berman.