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Los Angeles’ embattled progressive DA has admitted that the two-year prison sentence he ensured for a transgender woman who sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl may not have been enough.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón — who faces an ongoing recall effort over his controversial lenient policies — said Sunday that he would have handled convicted molester Hannah Tubbs’ case differently had he known about her “disregard for the harm” that she caused her young victim.
“While for most people several years of jail time is adequate, it may not be for Ms. Tubbs,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
“After her sentencing in our case, I became aware of extremely troubling statements she made about her case, the resolution of it and the young girl that she harmed,” he added.
Tubb’s offensive statements were caught on jailhouse tapes, which have not been publicly released.
The convict, now 26, pleaded guilty to molesting the 10-year-old girl when she was 17. She was sentenced last month to two years in a juvenile facility — after Gascón failed to file a motion to move the case into adult court.
Gascón’s decision caught the ire of the prosecutor in the case and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who said the judge’s “hands were tied” on sentencing because of the DA’s inaction.
Critics also blasted Gascón’s general policies, which have prevented prosecutors from seeking life sentences and filing cases against juvenile offenders in adult court.
Gascón, who took office in late 2020, announced revisions late Friday to those policies.
A new committee made up of members of his executive team, including high-ranking prosecutors and his chief of staff, will now review motions filed by ADAs requesting to transfer cases involving murder and other serious crimes from juvenile to adult court.
Prosecutors can also seek a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole “where it is deemed such filings are appropriate,” according to the new policy reviewed by The Post.
“This process ensures that only in the rarest of cases, where our system has failed, will we diverge from our principles,” Gascón said Sunday. “We do not always get it right, as no one can, but we do believe that our fundamental beliefs are the right ones.”
Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna told The Post on Friday that Gascón’s policy shift is to “temper bad publicity” over the case.
“It’s just smoke screens because the people who will be in these committees that will review these cases are his hitmen who will continue to take out these cases,” Sanna said. “This will not change anything.”
Sanna added Monday that Gascón never reached out to him despite being the lead prosecutor in Tubbs’ case.
“George Gascón was in possession of all evidence and knew or should have known of every statement made by Tubbs when he said he still believes Tubbs should be tried as a juvenile,” Sanna told The Post. “Gascón knew about all 250 plus jailhouse tapes and removed me from the case the night before the hearing where I was going to play the tapes.”
Sanna accused Gascón of trying to silence him and that the DA’s latest actions indicated a “consciousness of guilt” for claiming he was unaware of Tubbs’ jailhouse recordings.
Gascón filed charges against Tubbs in early 2020, not long after taking office. The transgender woman’s victim said during a hearing in December she still lives in fear many years after the attack.
“I feel that I’m to blame somehow, when I know deep down that isn’t the case,” the victim said in a statement. “I chose not to come into court because I couldn’t stand the thought of having to see my attacker’s face again.”
A judge ruled Tubbs be housed in a youth treatment center, despite Sanna’s efforts to keep her locked up in a Los Angeles County jail.
“You have a violent sexual predator sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility,” Sanna said after last month’s hearing. “It doesn’t change the fact that the public is safer, but we just preferred Tubbs to be with other adults and not prey on others.”
Judge Mario Barrera said several times at the hearing he was limited to sentencing Tubbs to two years because of Gascón’s office not filing a request to send her case to adult court.
Gascón has told the newspaper Tubbs’ case was complicated by the time between the attack and her identification, as well as the impact on her victim.
A committee seeking to recall Gascón from office has already raised $1.8 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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