Chiquita Twyman never thought she’d see justice for her little brother Ryan.

The 24-year-old unarmed man was killed in Willowbrook in June 2019 when LA County sheriff’s deputies fired 34 shots into the back of his vehicle.

Chiquita knew that the district attorney’s office rarely prosecuted law enforcement officers for using excessive force. Even after George Gascón became district attorney, campaigning to hold the police accountable, Chiquita remained skeptical.

But during his four years as the state’s attorney general, Gascón became one of the most aggressive pursuers of California’s law enforcement misconduct, making him an ally for criminal justice reform advocates; It is feared that some fears will disappear if the latest survey results are confirmed.

Nathan Hochman Gascón’s impeachment widely supported On Nov. 5, the former federal prosecutor is the preferred candidate for law enforcement officials across L.A. County. HE Millions raised from police unions and he frequently talks about restoring the relationship between the district attorney’s office and local cops.

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Since 2020, Gascón has charged five officers with on-duty shootings, including one of the deputies who killed Ryan Twyman.

Chiquita said he once yelled “F— the police” at Gascón, a former LAPD officer. But while speaking to potential voters at a rally for the incumbent president last month, he heaped praise on her.

“Gascón is the real deal and that’s why we need him in office,” said a tearful Chiquita.

But in a race focused on voters’ concerns about public safety and the legal wrangling that marred Gascón’s first term, the criminal justice reform issues that drove his election in the wake of George Floyd’s murder have largely taken a backseat.

“Everyone is looking at the November election from a presidential perspective, but I think the most immediate and impactful change for Angelenos will be the change in prosecutor. I would say this is a much bigger threat to the black community than Donald Trump. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said: “What you’ll see if Hochman wins is a complete rollback of police accountability. This has been bought and paid for by police associations.”

Hochman scoffed at suggestions that he would be grateful to police supporters, often repeating the canned remark that “nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop.”

“What I will bring at the end of the day is a sensibility that I am both a defense attorney and a prosecutor. I am someone who has actually prosecuted police officers,” he said during a recent debate. “When I talk to police officers, I make it clear: ‘When you cross the line, you will be prosecuted.'”

But Hochman, who worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles for years before becoming a defense attorney, has not prosecuted a police officer in nearly three decades. Gascón, meanwhile, spent three terms overseeing key decisions in use-of-force cases in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

A special prosecutor hired by Gascón to review cases that former LADA Jackie Lacey refused to prosecute Two more police officers were charged with his murder. Under Gascón, 38 police officers also faced charges for misconduct, according to the district attorney’s office.

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Although Gascón charged the officers, the results in the courtroom were mixed.

In Twyman’s case, the prosecutor filed manslaughter charges against his deputy, Andrew Lyons.

Police seized a cache of illegal guns from Ryan Twyman’s home weeks before deputies cornered him in a car in Willowbrook, authorities said. Twyman did not have a gun on him, but according to video of the incident, Lyons and another deputy rained bullets into the back of his car as it rolled toward them. In the video, Lyons can be seen grabbing his rifle and continuing to shoot even after the vehicle stopped.

Lyons took a plea deal allowing him to serve only 30 days in jail.

In a 2021 case involving involuntary manslaughter charges against an LA County sheriff’s deputy. The jury members voted for acquittal. The following year, a judge threw out a lawsuit against LAPD officers accused of falsely labeling people as gang members. Lacey brought both bags, but they both fell apart under Gascón’s watch.

Charges of misconduct and assault against police officers have been dismissed at preliminary hearings on several occasions. In a pending civil lawsuit filed last year, members of Gascón’s administration were also charged with: Delaying decisions in police shooting cases for political gain.

In other cases where Gascón won convictions or obtained plea deals, sentences were allegedly lenient. A Long Beach school security guard who shot a teenager in the back of the head as he walked away from the scene of the crime won a plea equivalent to probation last month. In one case, a judge blocked A plea has been filed to deny prison time to a sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a man in 2021.

In an interview with The Times, Gascón argued that officers likely would have faced no consequences under the previous administration. In many cases, plea agreements also prohibit officers from ever serving as law enforcement in California again, an important step in removing bad actors from police rosters, he said.

Gascón also noted that jurors are still hesitant to convict police, and sometimes plea deals are the best way to ensure some accountability.

“We have to have a realistic view of the courtroom we’re in, who the judges are, what kind of decisions we’re making,” he said. “Sometimes we settle for less than we want…sometimes we realize we are working with a disability and we do the best we can.”

Abdullah said anyone analyzing Gascón’s performance in police cases should take into account the reactions of families who lost relatives to such violence.

“The sentence for Twyman’s murder was very light indeed,” he said. “But when we talked to the family, it meant everything.”

Gascón tried to portray Hochman as too friendly with the police, especially the LA County Sheriff’s Department. Law enforcement unions spent $2.5 million supporting Hochman’s candidacy; $1 million of that came from the LA County Sheriff’s Department union. Gascón also frequently reminded voters that Hochman defended disgraced former sheriff Lee Baca on corruption charges.

“It depends on the police unions,” Gascón said. “When you look at it historically … he was close to the sheriff’s department in ways that were more like a fan.”

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But Hochman’s most hands-on experience prosecuting police actually involved going after corrupt Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies. As a federal prosecutor, Hochman sought to convict a defendant involved in a crime. “Operation Big Spender” A scandal in the 1990s in which lawmakers were accused of embezzling $1 million seized in drug raids.

Teree Bowers, who served as U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles at the time, said Hochman helped build the case that arose from the FBI investigation. Bowers called Hochman an “excellent” trial lawyer and said it was much harder to persuade jurors to convict police officers in the 1990s.

“I think the public had more trust in the police back then,” Bowers said. “The integrity and honesty of each of the prosecutors, including Nathan, was beyond question.”

Hochman promoted his work on the case, saying the issues he addressed three decades ago remain relevant today.

“I had to evaluate the credibility of law enforcement and build cases with supporting evidence and witnesses to successfully prosecute them,” he said. “This same skill set is crucial in analyzing the credibility of evidence and witnesses in officer-involved shootings and excessive use of force.”

Hochman, Gascón’s special prosecutor, Lawrence Middleton expected to indict a former LAPD officer The shooting death of a homeless man in 2015. Because the statute of limitations for manslaughter has expired, the officer is likely to be tried for murder, which Hochman said is unwarranted.

But while he repeatedly criticized Gascón’s hiring of Middleton, who billed the county nearly $883,000 from June 2021 to April 2024 despite filing only two lawsuits, according to public records, Hochman stopped short of promising to fire him if elected.

Middleton declined interview requests.

Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said it’s understandable that Hochman’s law enforcement support has made some voters “nervous.”

He said Gascón has made progress on communities that distrust district attorneys but warned that courtroom shortcomings could overshadow those gains.

“This is a double-edged sword. “It’s good to have someone willing to bring cases, but that person has to be able to win cases,” he said. “At some point, when you bring cases, the public gets angry and the cops walk away, or they walk away with a slap on the wrist.”

Times writer Connor Sheets contributed to this report.

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This story first appeared on: Los Angeles Times.