Prosecutor sues Los Angeles DA for retaliation after he was punished for 'misgendering' child predator
FIRST ON FOX: A deputy district attorney in Los Angeles has filed a complaint against his bosses for an alleged "extensive retaliation campaign" that derailed his career and saw him suspended without pay and punished further for "misgendering" a convicted child predator and killer – the latest in roughly two dozen whistleblower lawsuits.
"For the past two years, Gascon has tried to silence me," Shea Sanna, the prosecutor, told Fox News Digital. "He has suspended me without pay, threatened my livelihood, attacked my credibility, tarnished my reputation, demoted me, investigated me, and harassed me, all so I would obey him; so I would stay quiet; so I wouldn’t speak up on behalf of those most affected by his misguided political policies."
Sanna is accusing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, the county and other officials of whistleblower retaliation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court filings obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna at the Hannah Tubbs hearing in Antelope Valley Juvenile Court, California, Jan. 27, 2022. (Dave Buchan)
In one instance, Gascon's office sought to investigate him for "insubordination" while he was away on an approved vacation, the filing alleges.
But much of the conflict stems from Gascon's handling of James "Hannah" Tubbs, a convicted child molester who also bashed his own friend's skull in with a rock in Kern County.
"Since publicly opposing Gascón’s mishandling of the Tubbs case, Gascón has set his sights on Sanna, looking to manufacture any conceivable reason to make an example of his perceived disloyalty and ultimately, terminate him," Sanna's attorneys at the Dhillon Law Group said in a statement.
Tubbs was about to be paroled from an adult men's prison on assault charges in 2021, but Los Angeles prosecutors asked for a custody transfer so he could face justice in connection with a 2014 attack on a 10-year-old girl.
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Hannah Tubbs appears in court for sentencing in Bakersfield, California, on Nov. 7, 2023. Tubbs was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2019 murder of Michael Clark, after pleading guilty. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
The complaint alleges that Gascon had Sanna taken off of the case and prevented him from presenting evidence – then targeted him with "sham investigations" when he blew the whistle on policy and ethics violations.
Sanna raised other ethics issues, including a potential violation of Marsy's law, which protects victims' rights, and saw additional retaliation, according to the complaint. He was later ordered to drive 70 miles from his office in Antelope Valley to meet with top Gascon aide Joseph Iniguez and suspended for "misgendering" Tubbs. He was ordered to make the same drive at least two more times, in what the complaint alleges was an "intentionally abusive and malicious manner."
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"In early 2022, Sanna’s once promising career trajectory was derailed when he publicly revealed how Gascon’s policies had led to a miscarriage of justice in the Tubbs case, nearly resulting in the release of a highly dangerous and violent sexual predator," the complaint reads. "Sanna also exposed how the Gascón Administration had suppressed evidence and directed Sanna not to oppose defense counsel’s arguments in order to secure Tubbs’s release."
The Tubbs case garnered national attention because even though he was in his 20s, he was prosecuted as a juvenile in Los Angeles under Gascon, because the perpetrator was only 17 at the time of the crime.
Hannah Tubbs began identifying as female after being arrested in connection with a 2014 child molestation case in Los Angeles County. (Los Angeles County)
Jailhouse phone calls obtained by Fox News in 2022 appeared to show Tubbs and his father hatch a plan to identify as female, seeking to be housed in a girls' facility or released outright. After the calls came out, the lawsuit alleges that Sanna was told Gascon's administration was "coming for him."
Tubbs has a history of convictions of violent crimes and drug offenses in California, Washington and Idaho and has been accused of at least two other attacks on girls, in addition to the one in Los Angeles. His plan for a light sentence in a juvenile facility that kept him off the state's sex offender registry fell apart, however, when Kern County prosecutors had him extradited to face manslaughter charges.
Tubbs, now 28 and using the name Hannah, is being housed in the California Institution for Men, prison records show. That decision was up to state officials.
Joseph Iniguez, left, and George Gascon at the Reform L.A. Jails Summit + Day Party: Mental Health Matters on Nov. 9, 2019 in Pasadena, California. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Patrisse Cullors)
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"In the Tubbs case, Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna did nothing but seek to uphold his ethical and legal duties to present all relevant evidence to the court," his attorney, Anthony Fusaro, told Fox News Digital. "Yet because this evidence conflicted with D.A. Gascon’s recently enacted policies and public statements, Gascon sought to suppress it. When Mr. Sanna informed his supervisors and the public of Gascon’s suppression efforts, Gascon responded with a relentless retaliation campaign against Mr. Sanna that persists to this day."
Other high-profile cases that Sanna prosecuted include the wrong-way driving teen who mowed down a mother and her baby in a stroller in Venice Beach in 2021.
Although that case is not part of the retaliation lawsuit, he blew the whistle again on the teen suspect's lenient punishment. Kristopher Baca was released after just a few months – and murdered in a drive-by shooting before his 18th birthday.
Gascon is facing roughly two dozen retaliation lawsuits from prosecutors in his office.
He's up for re-election in November, facing a challenge from independent Nathan Hochman. Gascon's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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