This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today.
Emergency room workers are facing more attacks. A new California law increases penalties
Oscar Casillas, the medical director of emergency medicine at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, checks in on patients inside tiny cubicles that are used for treatment, on July 26, 2022.
(
Pablo Unzueta
/
CalMatters
)
Those who physically attack doctors, nurses and other emergency department workers in California face harsher penalties in 2025 thanks to a new law.
In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 977, which increased penalties from six months to a year in jail for those convicted of assaulting California’s hospital emergency room workers.
The bill’s author was Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez, who spent 30 years as an emergency medical technician in the San Gabriel Valley.
Rodriguez, a Democrat whose term ended in 2024, said he was compelled to introduce the legislation after seeing too many of his friends and former colleagues attacked on the job. He felt that there needed to be tougher penalties to discourage future attacks.
-
Jonathan Caravello was arrested while protesting a raid at a licensed cannabis farm in Ventura County. -
Perry died in October 2023 in his Los Angeles home. -
Prosecutors allege a former district information technology employee illegally helped award $22 million in contracts to a company that paid her $3 million.
As he made his case to lawmakers this year, he testified that his daughter, Desirae, a respiratory technician, was recently assaulted on the job. Other health care workers testified that they too had been attacked.
Recent polling shows they’re hardly alone. A poll from the American College of Emergency Physicians found that more than 90% of ER doctors said they’d been attacked within the last year.
Sponsored message
Though the bill ended up passing overwhelmingly, some progressive Democrats either voted against or didn’t vote for the proposal which counts the same as a “no” vote. They, along with prison reform advocates and the California Public Defenders Association, argued that increasing penalties doesn’t deter crime and that many of those assaulting ER workers are mentally ill. They noted that laws on the books already prohibited assault.
Former Gov. Jerry Brown, who faced a U.S. Supreme Court order to shrink the state’s prison population, had vetoed an identical bill from Rodriguez in 2015.
The California Medical Association, the lobbying group for California’s physicians, was glad Newsom didn’t do the same.
“Thank you Governor Newsom, Assemblymember Rodriguez, and the Legislature for having the backs of health care workers across the state,” the association’s president, Dr. Tanya Spirtos, said in a statement after Newsom signed the bill.
Trending on LAist
-
Dennis Block submitted a filing in eviction court that a judge called “fabricated.” He’s now facing potential discipline from the California State Bar. -
UFW hasn’t received direct information about the allegations, but it’s serious enough to the organization to pull back from Chávez, who co-founded the union. -
From the Central Coast to San Diego, millions of Californians are under heat advisories and warnings this week. Here's what you need to know. -
Trump is using Cold War-era emergency powers to force a California oil pipeline back online — and Gov. Newsom vows to sue, to block the move. -
Person with ‘history of sleeping on the job’ held critical role during Eaton Fire, complaint allegesAn L.A. County employee makes the allegation in a whistleblower complaint and in interviews about the response to the deadly fire. County officials dispute the allegations. -
“Do’s federal bribery conviction was the tip of the iceberg,” said his successor, Supervisor Janet Nguyen. She called for further investigation by law enforcement.
Best of LAist
