A Los Angeles judge released an arrest warrant affidavit shedding light on why the California Department of Justice filed a case against Diana Teran, a top deputy of LADA George Gascon. The affidavit revealed that the AG began looking into allegations that another Gascon appointee had drunkenly threatened to blacklist an officer who pulled him over. This investigation led to evidence that Teran had illegally stolen police personnel data to put it on the same blacklist.
It All Started With A Drunken Chief Deputy District Attorney
In February 2022, Joseph Iniguez was pulled over for a DUI traffic stop. He is the Chief Deputy to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, progressive prosecutor George Gascon. Iniguez, who was drunk, got out of the passenger seat of the car to argue with the police. When this did not result in him being let go, he began to threaten the officers, urging them to run his license plate, which would reveal his position as a high-ranking prosecutor.
He also threatened to put the officers on LADA’s Brady list. This is a list of officers that cannot be trusted to testify in court. In other words, Iniguez threatened to end the officer’s career by blacklisting him. Officers who cannot testify cannot be used to investigate cases. Placement on the Brady list can even result in termination. Iniguez’s threat was credible: he is the prosecutor that oversaw that list at the time he was pulled over. Iniguez was arrested, allowed to sober up, and released. He was never charged with a crime.
Iniguez’s threats apparently caught the attention of the California Department of Justice. They began to investigate, presumably to see if Iniguez was using his position to retaliate against the officer that pulled him over. But the investigation ended up in a very different place.
The AG’s investigation revealed that another Gascon political appointee named Diana Teran “accessed over 1,600 statutorily-protected peace officer personnel files as well as internal emails and documents concerning internal affairs investigations and confidential civil service proceedings” while overseeing LASD. There’s nothing wrong with doing that while in an oversight role. The problem is that Teran left LASD in 2018. What caught the AG’s eye was evidence that she illegally took those files to LADA in 2021.
After joining LADA in January 2021, TERAN repeatedly used data from those LASD personnel files and internal emails and documents in a surreptitious attempt to add peace officer names into LADA’s Brady and ORWITS databases.
(Affidavit at pp. 2:28-33.)
That is exactly what Iniguez was threatening to do during his drunken DUI stop. Adding those officers to the list would end their careers. And she was stealing their data to do it, which the AG says is a felony.
George Gascon’s Ethics and Integrity Chief is a Criminal Defendant
Attorney General Rob Bonta filed felony charges against Ethics and Integrity Assistant District Attorney Diana Teran on April 24, 2024. After what he called “an extensive investigation,” the California Department of Justice charged Teran with violating Penal Code section 502 subdivision (c)(2), alleging repeated and unauthorized use of data from police personnel files.
“No one is above the law,” he said. “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.”
Even though Teran had accessed 1,600 records, Bonta focused on 11. He accused Diana Teran of downloading the records of 11 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies while working as a Constitutional Policing Advisor at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Bonta accused her of impermissibly using those records after joining the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
On April 27, 2024, Diana Teran turned herself in to the police. She was booked, took a mugshot, and was released after posting a $50,000 bond.
Last month, the Los Angeles Public Press brought a successful motion to unseal the arrest warrant affidavit in the case against Teran. Their motion was joined by Teran’s defense attorney, James Spertus. Judge Mary Lou Villar granted the motion and unsealed the affidavit on June 25th.
What’s in the Affidavit?
You can read the affidavit here:
The LA Public Press article, written by Emily Elena Dugdale, was overtly critical of Bonta and the AG’s office. The article quotes Susan E. Seager, a law professor, who said, “What this unsealing reveals is that Rob Bonta doesn’t understand public court documents.” She claimed that two of the 11 deputies placed their disciplinary records in the public domain prior to the crimes. She concluded, “What a joke.”
Seager did not explain whether she believed this would be a defense in the case against Teran, nor did Teran’s lawyer, James Spertus, who is quoted at length in the article. Professor Seager also did not address the charges relating to the other nine deputies.
What’s Next?
There may be more to come. The affiant, Special Agent Tony Baca, said “I have not included each and every fact known to me concerning this investigation.” He implied that there was evidence omitted from the affidavit. “Unless specifically indicated otherwise, all conversations and statements described in this affidavit are related in substance and in part only.”
Baca described the investigation as “ongoing.” He mentioned three witnesses who may be cooperating. And crucially, he mentioned that the grand jury is permitted to use materials from his investigation.
Rumors and speculation are flying around the LADA’s office. Prosecutors speculate that Teran raised suspicions when she suggested, out of the blue, that her employees investigate certain deputies that had not been on their radar. LADA had no reason to know anything about these deputies that might put them on the Brady list. It wouldn’t take long for prosecutors to realize that Teran may be using information she had obtained illegally during her former oversight role.
An investigatory grand jury has been convened on the case. That means that the Attorney General’s office is using the grand jury’s powers to continue its investigation. The involvement of the grand jury suggests that an indictment may be coming, either against Teran or against other potential defendants.
Teran is set to be arraigned on the complaint in July. Proceedings in front of the grand jury are secret. There is no way to know if a superceding indictment will come down against Teran, or against anyone else, much less when indictments may be unsealed.
Notes
Teran is also implicated in a whistleblower lawsuit that accuses her of delaying prosecutorial decisions against deputies in high-profile incidents, potentially to influence electoral outcomes.
DDA Ryan Erlich details the long history of scandal and dysfunction at George Gascon’s office.
Prosecutors Alliance, a group of progressive prosecutors, wrote an open letter asking Bonta to dismiss the case.
The LA Times, in a totally objective article, calls the charges “bunk” and only includes quotes from Gascon Allies.
More defense complaining in the LA Times.
USC Professor Jody Armour claims Bonta brought the case because he is afraid of police unions.
Bonta and Gascon in better times:
DA in CA 
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