Another Los Angeles County prosecutor has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit alleging she was retaliated against for running afoul of the reform policies of former District Attorney George Gascón.
An attorney for Assistant District Attorney Victoria Adams filed court papers Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lynne Hobbs notifying her of a “conditional” settlement in the case with the expectation that a request for dismissal will be brought by Dec. 1.
No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, defense attorneys denied Adams’ allegations while also stating that the claims violated the statute of limitations and that the county was immune from liability.
According to her suit, Adams was hired in 1985 and was eventually appointed to assistant district attorney. She was the only member of the executive management team under former District Attorney Jackie Lacey who remained after Gascón was sworn into office in 2020, and she was the only one with any management experience, the suit stated.
Despite what she believed was chaos on the team, Adams tried to work with her colleagues and mentor them, the suit filed in November 2022 stated. Adams later accepted Gascón’s offer to take the position of chief of staff while continuing to supervise three bureaus, according to the suit.
However, Adams repeatedly complained to Gascón during executive management team meetings that some of his reform directives, including those involving the three-strikes law, cash bail for misdemeanor crimes and re-sentencing, were unlawful, the suit stated.
Adams also expressed concern about Gascón’s decision in early 2021 to hire criminal case defense attorney Lawrence Middleton to investigate officer-involved-shooting cases that Lacey had declined to prosecute, the suit stated.
In July 2021, Gascón without warning removed Adams from her chief of staff position and gave it to someone with less experience, the suit stated. Gascón later “effectively removed” Adams from the executive management team and she no longer received information about the team from Gascón and his top advisers, according to the suit.
Gascón also ended Adams’ supervision of the Bureau of Prosecution Support Operations as well as the murder re-sentencing unit, the suit alleged.
“Had plaintiff not repeatedly disclosed the unlawfulness of Gascón’s various special directives … Gascón would not have taken any of these adverse actions against her,” the suit stated.
In May 2022, Gascón demoted Adams from assistant district attorney of special operations to assistant district attorney of special projects, meaning she went from supervising hundreds of attorneys and other staff members in multiple bureaus to overseeing a secretary, the suit stated.
Adams will “never recover from this completely humiliating demotion, which will be the tragic end of her dedicated and accomplished nearly four-decades-long history of service to the county of Los Angeles,” the suit stated.
Deputy District Attorneys Isidora Baly, Michael Matoba, Maria Ramirez and Victor Rodriguez are among other Gascón-era prosecutors to have also reached tentative settlements in their suits against the county.
Gascón’s bid for a second term was thwarted in November by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.