(WatchDogReport.org) – The top aide of progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon was hit with grave charges on April 30. Diana Teran stands accused of illicitly accessing a sheriff’s office database, breaching the trust of her position, to gather confidential information about numerous deputies. The severity of the allegations is underscored by the fact that she allegedly carried this data to Gascon’s office upon joining his team. Teran is now confronted with more than 10 felony charges.
In the statement, the office of California’s Attorney General also revealed that Teran used the confidential information in many ways to assist Gascon and even to help some criminal defendants. The case has officially been referred to the office of the state attorney general because of a conflict of interest, which shows that Gascon’s right hand was the leader of his office’s integrity and ethics unit for weeks — despite a probe into her conduct. During her period in the position, Teran was formally in charge of every office division that prosecuted all misconduct allegations against public officials, including police officers.
Deputy district attorney Taiana Chahoian said she was one of Teran’s victims and claimed that Gascon’s assistant used confidential information about her related to a “whistleblowing incident” against officers.
In a letter sent to the media, Teran’s lawyer, James Spertus, said he believed that the whole case against his client would end up being an “embarrassing failure” for those who think she’s guilty. Spertus added that everything that Teran is currently going through is the fault of an act that no one would “expect in law enforcement today.”
LA deputy district attorney John McKinney, who lost against Gascon in the last primary election, said on his Twitter account that Teran’s case is delicate and controversial. He added that the sensitive aspect is the allegation that she not only introduced classified information into the district attorney’s databases illegally but also that Teran and Gascon knew these would be shared with defense lawyers.
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