The Brief

A top aide to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is facing felony charges stemming from accusations she “impermissibly used” confidential files from the sheriff’s department.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced this week that he filed charges against Diana Teran, an assistant district attorney who oversees a division that handles prosecutions of law enforcement officers.

The charges, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, stem from her previous role as a constitutional policing advisor to former L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. The attorney general alleges “repeated and unauthorized use of data from confidential, statutorily-protected peace officer files,” according to a statement from Bonta’s office.

After joining the district attorney’s office in 2021, Teran “impermissibly used that data,” according to the statement.

The charges — accessing and using computer data without permission — are linked to files containing information on 11 sheriff’s deputies. The charges do not specify whose they were.

Bonta’s office did not reveal in the statement what Teran is accused of doing with those files.

In her role at the Justice System Integrity Division, she oversees a database of law enforcement officers who have been accused of wrongdoing.

An attorney for Teran, James Spertus, did not respond Thursday to a request for comment. However, he told the Los Angeles Times that the case was “dead on arrival.”

“They’re charging her for doing something within the scope of her employment, that she has a duty to do,” Spertus told the Times, adding Teran had been cooperating with investigators.

“No one is above the law,” Bonta said in his statement. “At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the people of California and hold those who break the law accountable.”

Gascón did not directly comment on the charges, but defended how his office handles the law enforcement database, known as the Brady list.

“When I took office, we developed a protocol that ensured we complied with our constitutional obligations under Brady — which requires us to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, a category that includes law enforcement’s prior misconduct — while simultaneously complying with state and federal law around privacy," Gascón said in a statement. “I stand by that protocol.”

Gascón has made law enforcement accountability a top priority of his administration. His office has sought to prosecute 15 law enforcement officials involved in shootings or in-custody deaths, more than any other district attorney.

It's unclear what effect, if any, Teran’s prosecution would have on that work.

“I remain committed to upholding transparency and ensuring police accountability within Los Angeles County,” Gascón said. “We will address this matter with the utmost seriousness and diligence to uphold the values of justice and fairness.”

The president of the union that represents rank-and-file sheriff’s deputies called the allegations against Teran “deeply troubling.” The union has long criticized her work at the sheriff’s department, which involved disciplining deputies.

“Diana Teran’s disdain for law enforcement was apparent throughout her time with the sheriff’s department, and we weren’t at all surprised to see District Attorney George Gascon place her in a position of power and trust at the DA’s Office,” said Richard Pippin, a longtime critic of Gascón. “If the allegations are true, as a trained attorney entrusted with legally protected confidential files, she should have known better and should be held accountable.”

Pippin also called for a broader investigation of the sheriff’s Office of Constitutional Policing during Teran’s tenure.

Gascon’s opponent in the November election, criminal defense attorney Nathan Hochman, said placing Teran, a former public defender, in a leadership position showed “poor judgment.”

“Diana Teran oversees the prosecution of law enforcement officers – and now the AG says she herself is a criminal,” Hochman said on X, formerly Twitter. “He is destroying a once-great office.”

The district attorney’s office did not say after the charges were announced whether Teran would keep her job while the case is pending.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Destiny Torres

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LAist

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.