Los Angeles County Prosecutors are due to accelerate the accusations of crime against people accused of sexual crimes or violence against family members, according to a new political announcement on Thursday.
The announcement follows a recent report from the Los Angeles Times stressing how a backdone of criminal cases in the district prosecutor’s office may have played a role in the sexual assault and the murder of a 13-year-old boy.
The deputy chief dist. Atty. Steve Katz said Thursday that once a decision had been made to request an arrest warrant in such cases, the process of filing a criminal complaint must begin within one working day, according to a copy of a service note examined by the Times.
“The urgency with which a case must be treated and deposited is particularly important when the underlying conduct implies family violence or sexual assault, including the questions in which the accused is not in detention,” wrote Katz.
The political announcement comes approximately 24 hours after the publication of the Times, a report confirming that a backlog of thousands of cases pending in the DA office played a role in the delay of charges against Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino, 43
A 16-year-old boy had accused Garcia-Aquino of sexual misconduct in February 2024, and the Sheriff department of the County of Los Angeles presented a case to prosecutors for having tabled in May of the same year. But the costs were not deposited for more than 10 months due to a backlog of nearly 10,000 cases, according to several sources of application of the law and an email examined by the Times.
The district prosecutor’s office confirmed that the backlog was a delay in accusations against Garcia-Aquino earlier this week. But in a statement, the office said that it had also suggested that the case may have been slowed down by requests for “additional evidence of evidence”.
However, a spokesperson for the Sheriff Department said that detectives on the case had never “asked for additional information or tests on the case by the DA office”.
“The toxicology report was submitted with the report (the investigator) finished in May 2024,” said Nicole Nishida.
The boy, whom the friends and the family called Omar, were seen for the last time aboard a Metrolink train for Palmdale, where he was supposed to help Garcia-Aquino to do football jerseys. The coach is accused of having killed him during an obscene act on March 28, and the seventh year body was found in the county of Ventura in early April.
The prosecutors filed charges against Garcia -Aquino in the old case on April 2 – four days after the death of Omar.
The concerns concerning an increasing backwards in criminal affairs reached a fever field during the mandate of the former DIST. Atty. George Gascón. In July 2023, public archives showed that around 10,000 criminal cases presented by the police in 2021 and 2022 still awaited a decision to deposit. Among these were the accused accused of murder, domestic violence and arms offenses.
Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman and the president of the Union who represent the basic prosecutors said that the backlog had been caused by a Gascón decision to centralize deposits by electronic means, as well as an endowment crisis within the AD office. About 750 assistant district prosecutors remain in the ranks of Hochman, the smallest list of the office for decades, according to Ryan Erlich, the president of the Union. This figure does not include around 50 prosecutors at the management level, which rarely manage tests or decisions of deposit.
Gascón did not respond to requests for comments. A spokesperson for the district prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to an investigation into the change of policy on Thursday.
Hochman has repeatedly attacked Gascón about the conditions that led to the back of the campaign campaign last year, and said he had intensified efforts to eliminate the queue in recent weeks.
Garcia-Aquino is accused of murder and several sexual leaders against two other players arising from allegations dating from 2022. The authorities warned that there could be more victims. The coach did not argue during a brief appearance in a downtown courtroom this week.
Representatives of the victim family expressed the indignation that Garcia-Aquino was not arrested earlier.
“I am amazed that it took so long to carry these accusations. They could have saved the life of this boy,” said Michael Carrillo, lawyer for Omar’s family, earlier this week. “Someone must be held responsible here for keeping this man on the street and it led to the murder of this boy. … Someone must come to the family and explain how it could happen.”
California Daily Newspapers
