Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman was officially sworn in as the new Los Angeles County District Attorney on Tuesday after defeating George Gascón in the November election.
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger swore in the new DA in a ceremony outside the Hall of Justice. After taking his oath, Hochman repeated his campaign promise to undo many of Gascón’s progressive reforms on day one, including reinstating gang enhancements.
He also promised to create task forces on issues including homelessness, fentanyl, human trafficking, and hate crimes.
“We will lead task forces dealing with the key issues that our society is facing,” Hochman said. “No longer are we gonna kick this can down the road anymore.”
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna told KNX News’ Emily Valdez that he believes Hochman’s landslide election sends “a very strong message” from the community. He said some members of his department had expressed frustration with Gascón’s policies.
“There was definitely a lot of frustration, and they didn’t feel that victims of crime were being supported,” Luna said. “Nathan's laying out his vision and the conversations I've had with him, he says that he’s going to make sure that he works hard with his staff to change that."
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But City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener she fears Hochman’s approach will lead to a return to overcrowding at L.A.’s jails.
“What people have to understand is that back in the day when we had D.A. [Jackie] Lacey, the jail population was so big that they couldn't even hold people for their entire sentence,” she said. “The population was so big that they had to release people after serving only a little bit of their sentence because of overcrowding. How does that make us safer?”
After winning the election, Hochman told KNX News that his office will hold “criminals accountable proportionally” and look at the facts of each case individually.
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