A prosecutor who alleged he was demoted from a prestigious position for speaking out against former District Attorney George Gascón’s sentencing directives has tentatively settled his lawsuit against Los Angeles County.
Deputy District Attorney John Lewin’s attorneys filed court papers with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steve Cochran on Tuesday notifying him of the “conditional” accord with the expectation that a request for dismissal will be filed by March 4, 2025. No terms were revealed.
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In his suit brought in February 2023, Lewin alleged he suffered retaliation when he was wrongfully transferred from his high-profile position in the Cold Case Unit of the Major Crimes Division to a job handling daily cases before a judge at the Inglewood courthouse, all because of his criticisms of Gascón’s sentencing directives implemented after taking office in December 2020.
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Lewin was awarded the Ken Lamb Distinguished Achievement Award in 2021 for his 27 years of service in the District Attorney’s Office, but he refused the office’s request to appear in a photo with Gascón because he worried doing so would be “construed as an endorsement of Gascón’s illegal policies,” Lewin’s attorneys stated in their court papers.
Lewin was the lead prosecutor in the trial of Robert Durst, a New York real estate heir who was serving life in prison without parole, who died in January 2022 at age 78 of natural causes. Durst was convicted in September 2021 of first-degree murder for the December 2000 shooting death of Susan Berman.
Former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman unseated Gascón in the Nov. 5 elections.