Attorneys for a prosecutor who alleges he was demoted from a prestigious position for speaking out against outgoing District Attorney George Gascón’s sentencing directives lost a round in court when a judge denied a plaintiff’s motion to depose former District Attorney Steve Cooley.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran’s ruling in plaintiff Deputy District Attorney John Lewin’s lawsuit on Wednesday means lawyers for Los Angeles County have blocked Cooley’s deposition for now. The county attorneys argued in their court papers that there was “no legitimate reason” for Lewin’s lawyers to question him.
The judge’s ruling was “without prejudice,” meaning Lewin’s attorneys can raise the issue again.
In their pleadings, Lewin’s attorneys argued Cooley could testify first-hand about his knowledge of the office’s transfer procedures and put what happened to the plaintiff in context.
“Mr. Cooley’s testimony is further relevant because he was previously plaintiff’s supervisor at the … District Attorney’s office and has maintained a longstanding relationship with plaintiff,” Lewin’s lawyers further stated din their pleadings.
In his suit brought in February 2023, Lewin alleges he suffered retaliation when 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 taking office in December 2020.
In 2021 Lewin 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 stated 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, who 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 death of Susan Berman.
Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman unseated Gascón in the Nov. 5 elections.