Prosecutors will not file criminal charges against two people at the center of the Los Angeles racism scandal

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles city attorney’s office said Tuesday that it does not plan to file criminal charges against two people under investigation for recording a racist conversation that rocked City Hall and subsequently caused the City Council president to resign prompted audio was leaked in 2022.

The Associated Press is not naming the two people, who are a married couple, because no charges have been filed against them. Both previously worked at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and lived in a home that investigators traced to social media posts that drew attention to the controversial recording.

District Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office declined to file criminal charges against the couple, just months after the district attorney’s office announced it would not file felony charges against them.

“After careful review, it was determined that there was insufficient evidence to meet the constitutional standard of proof,” spokesman Ivor Pine wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday. “For this reason, our office will not file criminal charges.”

The scandal was sparked by a leaked recording of crude, racist remarks during a private meeting in 2021 where four Latino Democrats planned to expand their political power at the expense of Black voters in a redistricting effort. The recording was leaked the following year.

Council President Nury Martinez and powerful union leader Ron Hererra resigned in disgrace. Councilman Gil Cedillo’s term ended weeks later, but Councilman Kevin de León resisted calls for his removal – including from the White House – and he ran for re-election. He faces a runoff election in November.

The meeting was held at the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, known locally as the “LA Fed.” The couple both worked at the LA Fed at the time.

Investigators said the recording was posted anonymously on Reddit in 2022 and a Twitter account amplified the post. Both accounts were linked to an email account that was traced to an IP address – a numerical designation that identifies its location on the Internet – and linked to the couple’s home.

Detectives recommended charging the pair with wiretapping and illegal audio recording or wiretapping related to the recording of that conversation in 2021, as well as another phone conversation between Herrera and an association spokesman in 2022, according to a prosecution assessment worksheet released by the district attorney’s office . The district attorney declined to file charges earlier this year and referred the case to the city prosecutor’s office.

California law requires all parties to consent to the recording of a private conversation or telephone conversation or the person making the recording may face criminal and civil penalties. State wiretapping laws are among the strictest in the country, allowing the “injured party” — the person being recorded without their permission — to sue.

Cedillo and de León have separate pending lawsuits against the couple.

The district attorney’s charge sheet states that both individuals had “similar motives for committing the crime,” but does not elaborate on the alleged motives. Prosecutors wrote that the evidence suggests one or both people made the recording.

“However, it is unclear how the unlawful recordings occurred, what device they were made on, or who uploaded the recordings online and created the anonymous accounts on Reddit, Twitter, and Gmail,” the spreadsheet states.

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