LOS ANGELES – A jury in Los Angeles has awarded Deputy District Attorney Shawn Randolph $1.5 million after she claimed that District Attorney George Gascon retaliated against her for questioning his policies.
Randolph filed the lawsuit in October 2021 after she was removed from her job as Head Deputy District Attorney supervising all juvenile cases. The supervising prosecutor said she was given an effective demotion for raising ethical and legal objections to some of Gascon’s justice reform policies that critics say are “soft” on crime, NBC Los Angeles reported.
Randolph testified during a week-long jury trial that her job transfer to the office’s parole unit was punitive and retaliatory.
Gascon also testified on the second day of trial. He claimed Randolph’s reassignment was part of a larger reshuffling of managers and denied it was retaliatory.
Neither Randolph nor her attorney offered a comment following the verdict.
A statement from Gascon’s office Monday once the verdict was announced said it was “considering our options.”
“We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict, and stand by our decision to reassign this and other attorneys to new positions in the office,” Gascon’s office said in the statement.
Bill Melugin, a national correspondent with Fox News and former reporter in Los Angeles, shared the update in a tweet, noting that Randolph’s lawsuit was one of 17 such civil actions accusing Gascon of retaliation, the Daily Wire reported.
“BREAKING: A Los Angeles jury has just awarded prosecutor Shawn Randolph $1.5 million after she sued DA @GeorgeGascon, alleging retaliation & punitive transfer after speaking out against his policies. This verdict is the first of 17 lawsuits against Gascon alleging retaliation,” Melugin tweeted.
In early 2021 when I still worked at @FOXLA, L.A. County quietly settled with prosecutor Richard Doyle for a sum in the high six figures the day after I aired an investigation about Gascon’s alleged retaliation against Doyle for refusing to drop an https://t.co/pC0AdfFpqZ…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 7, 2023
Furthermore, Melugin noted that another prosecutor — Richard Doyle — had filed a similar lawsuit against Gascon. It was settled quietly for a high six-figure payout in 2021.
In his civil action, Doyle said he had been transferred after objecting to Gascon’s decision to drop a case involving three defendants who tried to destroy a train during an anti-police protest.
