LOS ANGELES – A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor has tentatively settled a lawsuit against her employer concerning the actions of former District Attorney George Gascón in the handling of a highly publicized use-of-force case.
Deputy District Attorney Amy Pellman Pentz contended in her Los Angeles Superior Court retaliation suit that Gascón was trying to undermine former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s unsuccessful re-election bid. Pentz’s attorney filed court papers on April 7 with Judge Maurice A. Leiter notifying him of the “conditional” settlement, along with the expectation a request for dismissal will be brought by Dec. 1. No terms were divulged.
In their previous court papers, county attorneys denied Pentz’s allegations and said she was not entitled to damages.
According to her suit filed in November 2023, Pentz for three years was assistant head deputy of the Justice System Integrity Division, which reviews complaints alleging government corruption and improper uses of force employed by law enforcement.
During the 2022 campaign for Los Angeles County sheriff, Villanueva’s opponents criticized him for a widely publicized use of force by deputies that was recorded on video and depicted a deputy placing his knee on an inmate’s neck for more than three minutes.
“This video was illegally released to the public and was used by Villanueva’s detractors to spread the false narrative that the use of force was illegal and that Villanueva had attempted to cover it up,” the suit stated.
Pentz’s unit investigated the case and her supervisor, former Richard Ramirez prosecutor Alan Yochelson, approved her September 2022 recommendation that no charges be filed because the use of force appeared proper and justified, the suit stated.
Yochelson’s supervisor, Diana Teran, gave her nod to the decision and Gascón did so a month later, the suit stated.
A decision to not file charges is typically provided to the law enforcement agency right away, but in this case it was not turned over to the sheriff’s department or any other law enforcement department, the suit stated. Yochelson told Pentz that Teran wanted to withhold release of the determination “in an effort to impact the outcome of the election against Sheriff Alex Villanueva,” the suit stated.
Yochelson told Pentz, “This is total BS” and said he believed the information should be released, but that the administration did not want to “give Villanueva any good news this close to the election,” the suit alleged.
A meeting was held about the use-of-force case in October 2022 and was attended by Pentz, Gascón, Teran and Yochelson, who told the plaintiff to not speak during the session, according to the suit.
Teran said she and another administrator wanted the decision to not file charges held until after the elections and Gascón was in agreement, the suit stated.
After the meeting, Pentz told Yochelson that the refusal to release the decision in order to impact the elections “was unlawful or used words to that effect,” according to the suit.
Villanueva eventually found out that the decision was being withheld and chastised Gascón for doing so, the suit stated.
“Gascón and other high-ranking officials in the District Attorney’s Office believed that plaintiff was the person that disclosed to Sheriff Villanueva that the declination had been withheld,” according to the suit, which further stated that Pentz was removed from her position in November 2022, the same month in which Villanueva was defeated by former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna, described in the suit as a “close ally” of Gascón.
In January 2023 testimony before the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission, Pentz contradicted Teran’s testimony that no one in the District Attorney’s Office had applied for an open integrity unit position, with the plaintiff stating that multiple prosecutors had indeed applied.
After her commission testimony, Pentz was offered a position on the Equity Action Team as a representative for the Jewish community. Pentz was a founding member of the Jewish Prosecutor’s Association.
However, after attending her first meeting with EAT, Pentz was removed by Chief Deputy Sharon Woo “under the pretext that there were too many lawyers” on the team, the suit alleged.
Multiple other prosecutors also sued the county over the alleged retaliation they experienced for speaking out against Gascón’s criminal justice reform directives and also have reached tentative settlements. In November, Gascón was defeated in his re-election by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman.
