“Bright” LA District Attorney George Gascon is accused of throwing the book at rapper Tory Lanez to ward off attacks on his soft-spoken approach, which has led to murderers and child molesters being freed years earlier.
The Democratic prosecutor has called for an increase in the Canadian musician’s maximum sentence as he was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for shooting his former lover, Megan Thee Stallion, in the feet.
Gascon’s office had called for a 13-year sentence, claiming a lesser sentence would “endanger the public”, but was accused of singleing out the musician to salvage his own embattled career.
But in the same state, killer Andres Cachu was released after just five years in 2021 before being arrested again, while transgender child molester Hannah Tubbs secretly laughed at her two-year sentence in a juvenile detention center for assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
Defense attorney Matthew Barhoma criticized prosecutors for the “inequality of seeking a 13-year sentence,” which he added, “represents quite a departure from LA DA’s own sentencing policy.”
Controversial Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon was attacked at the 40th annual Long Beach Pride March (pictured) on Sunday for reducing prison sentences for criminals
But there was no mercy for rapper Tony Lanez (left) as prosecutors sought the maximum sentence for his assault on former lover and fellow musician Megan Thee Stallion (right).
“That inequality is being sought just because he’s Tory Lanez,” he added.
“The fact that he is Tory Lanez is no reason to seek an extension of sentence.” The prosecutor is taking action.’
Gascon made his name as a prosecutor in San Francisco, where he co-authored the state Senate’s infamous Proposition 47 bill, which drastically reduced the number of crimes on the statute book.
And he repeated that move, pledging on his first day in office in December 2020 to eliminate bail bonds and promising the release of hundreds of people from LA County jails.
He said his prosecutors would no longer seek the death penalty, calling it “racist” and vowing to stop prosecuting juveniles as adults.
He estimated that about 20,000 state prison inmates would be considered for parole, but his reforms have infuriated staff, resulting in at least 140 vacancies and a backlog of 10,000 cases.
“The problem is that people started leaving because they were so fed up with his politics that those of us who stayed have to carry double or triple the amount of cases,” a prosecutor told the NY Post.
But it’s his determination to keep young people out of the criminal justice system that has threatened his re-election and helped pro-victims’ rights advocates ignite a recall petition that garnered more than 715,000 signatures last year.
Gascón asked the judges to release triple killer Raymond Butler (left) and his lawyer from death row, while killer Andres Cachu (right) was released after just five years
Andres Cachu was 17 when he murdered 41-year-old Louis Amela in a 2015 robbery.
Tried as an adult, he was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison in 2016.
But Gascon agreed to release Cachus after just five years in 2021, a year before he was arrested again in a chase while drugged and holding a gun.
“We are frustrated to see that he is struggling,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
30-year-old Victor Bibiano, arrested for killing a homeless man in Pacoima in April last year, was released from prison in 2021 after serving just eight years of a life sentence for double murder because Gascón refused his Court to transfer case from juvenile to adult offense.
Last year Ands Gascon asked a judge to remove triple killer Raymond Butler from death row, 28 years after he shot Japanese film students Takuma Ito and Go Matsuura in the head.
“In my career as a prosecutor, I’ve never seen victims’ families really hate us until I came into this office,” a former assistant prosecutor told The Post.
“We are hated by all the victims because of his policies, there is no prosecution and the penalties are low.”
Even Gascon admitted that a two-year sentence in a juvenile detention center might not have been enough for then-26-year-old trans woman Hannah Tubbs, who sexually abused a 10-year-old girl two weeks before her 18th birthday.
But he suspended a lawyer who had “misrepresented” the perpetrator, who later gloated over the leniency of the sentence in a secretly recorded prison call to her father.
Tubbs, 27, who is also accused of molesting another minor, was charged with murder in May this year in connection with a 2019 murder.
Lawyers for Lanez (left) claimed his crime warranted parole, but Gascon (right) pushed for a 13-year prison sentence
But the prosecutor was determined to show no mercy to Lanez as the rapper stood trial in one of the most high-profile cases of the year.
In her emotional testimony at the trial, 28-year-old Megan told jurors that she and Lanez – with whom she had a sexual relationship – attended a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s home on July 12, 2020 and stayed at his home were having SUVs in the Hollywood Hills with Kelsey Harris when an alcohol-related argument broke out.
Megan – real name Megan Pete – asked the driver to stop the car and she got out, after which she said Lanez yelled “dance b***h” and fired a gun at her five times, making her feel so heavy injured her feet that she had to have surgery.
She testified in court that Lanez offered her and Harris $1 million to keep the shooting quiet and asked them not to report him because he was already “on probation.”
Hannah Tubbs laughed at her two-year sentence in a juvenile detention center for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl, but Gascony prosecutor Shea Sanna suspended her for “misrepresenting” the perpetrator as a man
Megan also said Lanez later apologized to her and claimed he was intoxicated at the time of the shooting.
Lanez was found guilty of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, reckless firing of a firearm, and carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
After Tuesday’s verdict, Gascon stressed that the case “has highlighted the numerous ways in which our society needs to do better for women.”
“Thank you to Assistant District Attorneys Kathy Ta and Alex Bott, and Victim Protection Officer Cecilia Zamora, who spent countless hours making sure justice was done.”