Four years after being defeated by challenger George Gascón, former Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey is having her I-told-you-so moment as the pendulum of Angelenos’ sentiment toward the criminal justice system swung back center in the 2024 election cycle.
Lacey, who was ousted by outgoing District Attorney Gascón after receiving some 10% fewer votes in 2020, said she was not surprised by the defeat of her once political rival.
“It really matched what I was hearing on the streets from my neighbors,” Lacey said for NBCLA’s Conan Nolan during NewsConference Sunday. “People were fearful. They were less safe.”
Gascón’s political surge to defeat her while pushing for police accountability and criminal justice reform was reflective of the national trend, Lacey said.
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“It was a perfect storm,” the former DA recalled her reelection campaign shortly after George Floyd was murdered while people were frustrated with COVID-19 restrictions. “The criminal justice reform people who were way over to the left took advantage of that and saw it as an opportunity to get the public to go for this.”
In the 2024 election, California voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 36, which increases punishments for some theft and drug possession offenses while undoing some of the key provisions from Prop 47, which Californians had passed a decade ago.
Lacey, who had also endorsed District Attorney-elect Nathan Hochman for the post that she once occupied, said she feels vindicated.
“I’m just glad that the voters saw through what I thought was a smoke-and-mirrors campaign,” she said.
While the District Attorney’s Office will move a bit to the center come December, Lacey recommended the new district attorney not rush to undo things.
“First thing I would do is go in and listen to the feedback in terms of what they have to say because (there will be) some of the reforms he may want to keep,” Lacey said.
Lacey urged Hochman to learn from Gascón’s policies, saying she thought her successor “abandoned victims.”
“One of the first things I would do is (to) start having prosecutors go back to parole hearings with victims to make sure the parole board has the information on lifers,” she said.
When it comes to the Menendez brothers’ case for which Gascón is pushing for the early release of the murder convicts, Lacey said Hochman already has the “right answer.”
“Review the entire file, the law, both trials and make the decision,” Lacey said. “I’m so glad that's not my job anymore.”
