State charges reform-minded L.A. prosecutor's deputy with 11 felonies

A prosecutor who works as the "ethics chief" in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has been charged with illegally using confidential data on sheriff’s deputies.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Diana Teran, an assistant district attorney, turned herself in over the weekend and was hit with 11 felony counts related to the alleged data breach at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Ms. Teran is a top deputy for District Attorney George Gascon, the reform-minded Democrat who has survived several recall efforts amid criticism that he is "soft-on-crime."

Ms. Teran is charged with “impermissibly” using personnel files when she joined the district attorney's office in 2021.

That came roughly three years after she left her role overseeing constitutional police practices at the sheriff’s department.

“No one is above the law,” Mr. Bonta said in a press release last week. “Public officials are called to serve the people and the State of California with integrity and honesty. At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the people of California and hold those who break the law accountable.”

The state’s DOJ doesn’t elaborate on how Ms.Teran illegally used the files.

In her role as the head of ethics and integrity for the district attorney’s office, Ms. Teran supervised misconduct, fraud and other cases involving police officers and public servants.

James Spertus, Ms. Teran’s attorney, told The Los Angeles Times that he believes his client is being wrongfully charged over her handling public “Brady” materials

The 1963 Supreme Court ruling of Brady v. Maryland requires prosecutors to share information with defense lawyers that could help a defendant’s case.

Mr. Spertus said he thinks the documents involved in the alleged data breach became public when deputies filed lawsuits to overturn disciplinary decisions against them.

“I believe every document will be located in an L.A. Superior Court case file,” he told The LA Times.

Former Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during an event last week that in 2019, he tipped off the FBI and attorney general about Ms. Teran’s role in a “massive data breach.”

Deputy Los Angeles District Attorney Tatiana Chahoian told the network that Ms. Teran withheld a case file and video evidence during the prosecution of a violent suspect.

The suspect — who pleaded guilty to breaking a woman’s collarbone in a separate incident — was arrested in 2022 for child endangerment for holding her baby in her arms while she rode in a car.

The suspect resisted as deputies tried to remove the baby from her grasp and detain her. Body camera footage showed one of the officers punch the woman twice in the face during the arrest.

"The mother who was punched was a violent person and involved in multiple incidents," Ms. Chahoian told Fox News. "But Teran wanted to screw over the deputy, so she made sure no one in the DA's office had access to the actual video, including me, the assigned prosecutor."

Ms. Teran was released on a $50,000 bond.