LOS ANGELES—A California juvenile under the influence of drugs who plowed a car into a mother and her 8-month-old baby last year, according to investigators, will serve a 5-to-7-month sentence, following a recent ruling made by Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón.
On Aug. 6, 2021, surveillance footage showed a 16-year-old suspect crashing his vehicle into a mother and her baby in an alleyway in Venice, California. The incident was witnessed by several bystanders and the suspect was stopped a few yards down by an oncoming driver who purposefully collided with the vehicle.
Both the mother and child survived, with only the mother receiving a laceration to her elbow.
The juvenile was driving a rental car, according to investigators at the time of the incident, adding it is unknown how he obtained the car.
As initial felony charges were dropped and the suspect was released to his parents, Gascón’s office issued a juvenile probation camp sentence, an alternative sentence to juvenile detention meant to rehabilitate minors.
Gascón’s office defended the sentencing in a statement to local media outlets, claiming that the “Sheriff’s Department agreed with the felony charges that were filed” and called the juvenile probation camp, recommended by The Probation Department, “an appropriate solution.”
At arraignment, the minor—who also was on probation during the time of the attack for a separate incident—admitted two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of hit-and-run.
“In this case, this teen will be held accountable for his actions and receive the needed services to foster positive development to keep him from committing future offenses,” the statement reads.
However, LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a statement the department was “never consulted as we were not the Investigating agency.”
“Sheriff’s Investigators would never be ok with the lightweight sentencing in this hit and run case. Stop empowering and encouraging criminal behavior. Hold them accountable,” he wrote in a Tweet.
Upon Gascón’s election, he introduced several “bold steps” for reform, such as no longer charging minors as adults, eliminating many sentencing enhancements (including firearms), ending the death penalty in LA County; removing cash bail for misdemeanor or nonviolent felony crimes, and holding accountable law enforcement officers who violate the law.
Critics of the district attorney say these policies have only resulted in more crime.
The mother hit by the minor, who chose to remain anonymous, said in a victim’s impact statement that she has never “felt so victimized as I have by the system and current policies of LA’s DA, George Gascón.”
“I thought those were the last moments of our lives, we were dead. That feeling, along with the memory of a car accelerating directly into us will haunt me forever,” she wrote in a statement, according to local media outlets.
Gascón, elected in December 2020 on a promise to reform the criminal justice system, is facing a recall effort. Petitioners have until July 6 to gather 566,857 signatures from registered Los Angeles County voters, or 10 percent of that figure to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot. Organizers have over 500,000, but will need between 650,000 and 700,000 to account for wiggle room as signatures are verified, according to the campaign.
“As sad as it is, every horrific story like this helps bring attention to Gascón’s reckless agenda,“ Tim Lineberger, spokesman for the recall campaign, told The Epoch Times. ”The campaign should be paying Gascón for PR work at this point because his pro-criminal policies have done more to bring attention to the recall than almost anything else.”
Gascón’s office did not respond for a request for comment by press deadline.
