By Keri Blakinger

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta on Tuesday tossed out two of the eight remaining felony charges against Diana Teran, a top district attorney’s office advisor accused of illegally using records the state alleges were confidential.

But Ohta also ruled the case will move ahead toward trial on six remaining felony charges. The decision came after a four-day preliminary hearing in the state’s case against Teran, who was charged under a computer hacking statute.

Four months ago, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said Teran broke the law in 2021 when she flagged several sheriff’s deputies’ names for possible inclusion on a list of problem cops. Bonta’s office said Teran knew about those deputies and their alleged misbehavior only because of purportedly confidential records she’d been sent three years earlier when she worked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Teran’s attorney, James Spertus, has said repeatedly that those records were never confidential because they were public court records. But state prosecutors have argued for weeks that all information sent to the Sheriff’s Department is considered confidential under department policy, even if it is a public court ruling written by a judge.

Ohta read aloud his 28-page ruling, which took more than an hour. Ultimately he concluded that, although court records are public, Teran could have then searched for those deputies’ names in the Sheriff’s Department’s confidential personnel data system after she was emailed the records in question. Those searches, he said, could show a link between the public records and confidential information.

State and county prosecutors declined to comment on Tuesday’s outcome. But former Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who watched the proceedings from the audience, said Ohta’s decision was a disappointment.

“It’s a sad day when someone as fine a lawyer and as ethical and careful as she is was working within the scope of her authority and somehow that scope becomes criminalized,” he told The Times outside the courtroom.

Spread out over two weeks, the hearing featured several eyebrow-raising moments. At one point, a state investigator incorrectly said he thought court filings were not considered public records because they cost money. Later, he said all information sent to the Sheriff’s Department would be confidential — even the receipt for a deputy’s pizza order.

And, though prosecutors said for months that Teran had illegally taken confidential personnel records, testimony showed there was no evidence she had downloaded any of the court records from confidential personnel files, which she was permitted to access as part of her job. Even so, one investigator testified that the state is still investigating additional allegations against Teran….