County of Los Angeles County. He said. Nathan Hochman and the union that represents the top police officers issued a harsh punishment for City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto on Tuesday morning while promoting one of her opponents in the upcoming election, District Attorney John McKinney.
Hochman said he considered the field and decided that the city attorney’s office “desperately needs” an experienced prosecutor like McKinney, who has been a prosecutor for 28 years and has handled some of the city’s most high-profile cases.
“What we need in the LA city attorney’s office is someone with courtroom experience, someone who understands how to win a case,” said Hochman. “Man actually did not just talk the talk, but walked the walk.”
Hochman and leaders of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents most LAPD officers, applauded McKinney. The party recently withdrew its endorsement of Feldstein Soto, who has faced criticism for many problems since he was elected in 2022.
Feldstein Soto’s office has been accused in recent weeks of failing to notify other city officials of a hack of confidential files that leaked 337,000 documents, videos and photos online. The documents number in the millions of pages, and appear to be from civil lawsuits against the city that have been settled in court. The files were not password protected, according to sources who previously spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.
The city attorney’s office previously responded to The Times’ questions by referring to a public report released on April 17, which states that a preliminary investigation showed that “the incident was contained to that third-party property, and that no other City requests, plans, or departmental records were accessed or affected.”
Although most of the documents were about trivial matters, some contained sensitive information about the police. The Times used leaked documents last month to reveal how the LAPD punished officers who blew up a city block when they misjudged the weight of explosives seized in South LA in 2021.
Sgt. Chris Wecker, vice president of the police union, said police frustration with Feldstein Soto goes beyond the data breach. Wecker noted that the city has paid out large sums of money in civil lawsuits under Feldstein Soto’s administration, some of which the union believes he did not play well.
“Los Angeles has seen a dramatic increase in lawsuits, settlements and rulings against the city costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “The city attorney must not immediately take action once a case has been filed but must cooperate with the city departments to identify legal risks before expensive lawsuits are filed.”
Robb Korinke, a spokesman for Feldstein Soto’s campaign, said that as city attorney he “has an excellent record in prosecuting cases in the City of Los Angeles.”
“He is proud of his record. And unlike his opponents, he has the valuable municipal experience needed to handle this important office at this critical time in the city’s history,” Korinke said.
McKinney said he would be able to see legal cases against the city from “losing” cases “almost immediately,” something he argued Feldstein Soto failed to do.
“I will treat the money of the city and the taxpayers as my own, people should know about me that I am a thrifty person,” he said. “I’ll watch your dollar.”
Feldstein Soto has also been accused of mismanaging his office and using the city’s prosecutorial powers to incriminate himself in numerous cases, allegations he has repeatedly denied.
McKinney said he believes the city attorney’s office can do more to reduce homelessness and criticized Feldstein Soto for handling a number of abuse cases including animal cruelty and trespassing. He said he’s a proponent of “Broken Windows” policing — the idea that little enforcement will reduce serious crimes — and took a shot at Feldstein Soto’s handling of the data breach.
If such an incident occurred under his watch, McKinney said “his first call would be to [Los Angeles Police] The Department, the second was the FBI and the third was the impact on the people.”
Feldstein Soto’s office said senior LAPD officials and the city’s IT department were notified immediately after the leak was discovered, and the FBI is investigating the matter.
While it’s rare for a state district attorney to enter a race against a city-level colleague — ex-Dist. He said. George Gascón did not endorse the 2022 race winner Feldstein Soto – Hochman and McKinney are former political allies.
McKinney and Hochman were rivals in the 2024 district attorney’s race, but after Hochman won, McKinney quickly endorsed him and helped him strengthen his campaign against Gascón.
A longtime prosecutor who has overseen a number of high-profile cases, including winning the case against the man who killed beloved LA rapper Nipsey Hussle, McKinney was promoted to oversee special prosecutions in the office after Hochman’s election victory last night.
Hochman said his endorsement was more about the things McKinney did right than anything the incumbent did wrong.
Feldstein Soto still has the endorsement of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Mayor Karen Bass, who is fighting her own uphill battle for re-election.
Marissa Roy, deputy attorney general of the California Department of Justice, is running on the left side of the field and is supported by the state’s Democratic Party, the Democratic Socialists of America and her boss, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. Roy said he wants to turn the office into “the biggest law firm in town,” targeting wage theft, employer abuse and other issues affecting working-class Angelenos.
“When the LAPD’s misconduct costs taxpayers hundreds of millions a year in lawsuits, it’s understandable why [Los Angeles Police Protective League] I can recommend someone who has been very involved in the fight against my record of fighting for human rights,” said Roy on Tuesday.
Los Feliz attorney Aida Ashuri is also active.
An announcement from Hochman and the LAPD union could start McKinney’s whistleblowing campaign. He has raised only $78,000 since entering the arena, far less than Roy or Feldstein Soto. Much of McKinney’s criticism of Feldstein Soto on Tuesday echoed Hochman’s successful lines of attack against Gascón in 2024: He pointed out what he saw as his lack of courtroom experience and the embattled deputy city attorneys becoming discouraged under his leadership.
McKinney is relying on some of Hochman’s previous campaign resources, hiring both the man who oversaw Hochman’s victory in the 2024 district attorney race and fundraiser Trey Kozacik, who runs the Pluvious Group.
The group was successful in helping Hochman build a large war chest for his 2024 campaign, but its work helping organize President Trump’s Los Angeles fundraisers has come under scrutiny in the past. The city has often found itself in court against the Trump administration in recent years, efforts that McKinney may have to lead if elected.
McKinney, a registered Democrat, previously told The Times that he would defend the city’s residents in court, “regardless of who is in the White House.”
“I am very saddened by the actions of other law enforcement agencies that came to Los Angeles and deliberately tried to intimidate our people,” he said.
Times Staff Writers David Zahniser and Libor Jany contributed to this report.
