Today, 36 victims of police violence, police accountability experts and former prosecutors sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta arguing that his office’s charging of Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney Diana Teran could have dangerous ramifications for the oversight of law enforcement across the state.

As the letter explains, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office has a duty to hold officers accountable if they break the law and to comply with its constitutional Brady obligations to disclose officers with histories of misconduct to the defense. Assistant District Attorney Teran was hired to oversee this law enforcement accountability work because of her decades of experience in prosecution and police oversight. Now, she has been accused of acquiring documents the prosecution is entitled to request but is charged with accessing them through the wrong channel. The documents in question were used in her role within the District Attorney’s Office to comply with discovery and to ensure the fair administration of justice for everyone. The DA’s office not only should have access to records about crimes or other misconduct committed by law enforcement, but they must have these records to fulfill their constitutional obligations. In fact, many police misconduct records are now accessible not just for prosecutors but also for the public at large.

“Police misconduct should not be kept in the shadows. It’s very troubling that a prosecutor could be indicted for working towards such transparency and accountability,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and a signatory to the letter.

“Ms. Teran’s work for the DA’s Office overseeing a non-public, internal DA database of police misconduct findings enabled prosecutors to fulfill their constitutional obligations in criminal cases, and such conduct should be applauded, not prosecuted. The charges brought against Ms. Teran are against the public interest in ensuring compliance by prosecutors with their constitutional obligations,” said former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti.

“Law enforcement departments in Los Angeles and across California are desperately in need of adequate oversight. Prosecuting a public servant in order to shield police misconduct from the very agencies tasked with holding law enforcement accountable is a dangerous and deeply troublesome approach. The effect of this will be chilling, as others doing this important work will have to fear that carrying out the requirements of their jobs will imperil their careers and put them at risk of imprisonment,” said Cristine Soto Deberry, Executive Director of the Prosecutors Alliance, the organizer of the letter.

Signatories include former Los Angeles District Attorneys Gil Garcetti and Ira Reiner; former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin; Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile; Tahir Duckett, Executive Director at the Georgetown Law Center for Innovations in Community Safety; Ellen Yaroshefsky, Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics at Hofstra Law School; and Michael Gennaco, Principal at OIR Group, which provides independent police oversight and review, and former federal prosecutor and head of the Civil Rights Division for the Central District of California.

Read the letter and see the full list of signatories here.

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Prosecutors Alliance is an organization of prosecutors, victim advocates, and allies committed to reforming the criminal justice system by advancing public safety, human dignity, and community well-being.