LA County assistant DA to stand trial for alleged unauthorized use of sheriff’s department data

A Los Angeles County assistant district attorney who was in charge of ethics and integrity operations for the office was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on six felony counts for alleged unauthorized use of data from confidential police officer files.

Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta dismissed two other identical felony counts against Diana Teran, finding that those counts “had failed.”

Three other counts against Teran were dismissed earlier this month at the request of the California Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case.

Reading from a 28-page ruling, the judge noted that the case involves a “high-ranking prosecutor” in the District Attorney’s Office, and that the case was “technical in nature.”

The judge said he spent “a lot of time thinking about the law” and whether the prosecution’s theory was valid.

Teran is free on her own recognizance and is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Sept. 3 for arraignment.

She was charged April 24 by the California Department of Justice with violating a state law prohibiting the use of data from a government computer system without permission, according to a statement released by the state Attorney General’s Office.

Teran allegedly accessed computer data, including numerous confidential peace officer files, in 2018 while working as a constitutional policing adviser at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and then impermissibly used that data at the District Attorney’s Office after going to work there in January 2021, according to a statement released earlier this year by the Attorney General’s Office.

“No one is above the law,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in the statement. “Public officials are called to serve the people and the state of California with integrity and honesty.”

Teran’s attorney, James Spertus, has questioned whether it was a crime for his client to do her job, and told the judge that he disagreed with his conclusion. Outside court, he said he “absolutely” plans to ask another judge to reconsider whether there was sufficient evidence to require Teran to stand trial.

“The judge was very diligent, but I believe he misapplied the law,” Spertus said after the hearing. “I don’t think it’s possible to split the ruling the way the court did …”

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who was in court for the judge’s ruling, later called it “just a sad day, a sad day that someone is being prosecuted for something she did in her scope of responsibility.”

“This is a crime?” said Garcetti, who hugged Teran after the hearing.

He described her as bright, careful and ethical, noting that she had worked for him in the District Attorney’s Office before he became the county’s top prosecutor.

The Los Angeles Times reported last month that the District Attorney’s Office has said Teran is no longer in the role of assistant district attorney over ethics and integrity operations.

Shortly after the case against Teran was filed, District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement, “When I took office, we developed a protocol that ensured we complied with our constitutional obligations under Brady — which requires us to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense, a category that includes law enforcement’s prior misconduct — while simultaneously complying with state and federal law around privacy. I stand by that protocol.”

“While we cannot comment on specific personnel matters, we will comply with any investigation from the Attorney General’s Office,” Gascón said then. “I remain committed to upholding transparency and ensuring police accountability within Los Angeles County. These principles are paramount to the integrity of our work and the trust of the community we serve. We will address this matter with the utmost seriousness and diligence to uphold the values of justice and fairness.”

In 2019, then-Los Angeles County Undersheriff Tim Murakami said the agency was investigating Teran along with Inspector General Max Huntsman for allegedly accessing confidential personnel files of high-ranking sheriff’s executives, including then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Murakami told ABC7 at the time that Teran had downloaded the confidential personnel records on behalf of the Inspector General’s Office a few days before Villanueva was sworn into office in late 2018.

Huntsman at the time denied any wrongdoing, insisting that a county ordinance afforded his office access to county employee records, and that his office kept such records confidential.