Nathan Hochman promises change as he is sworn in as District Attorney
Nathan Hochman is sworn in as Los Angeles District Attorney by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as wife Vivienne Vella holds a bible at the Hall of Justice, downtown. David Hochman records the event from behind. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Nathan Hochman, who campaigned for district attorney while espousing a “hard middle approach” to battling crime and scored a resounding victory over progressive incumbent George Gascón in last month’s election, was sworn in Tuesday as Los Angeles County’s 44th lead prosecutor.
The 61-year-old former federal prosecutor assumed control of the office in a ceremony outside the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles, with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger administering the oath.
“I am deeply honored for the opportunity of a lifetime ... to lead the finest District Attorney’s Office in the nation -- the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office,” Hochman said. “Now to paraphrase Governor Schwarzenegger from many years ago, we are not here today as Democrats, Independents or Republicans. ... We are here collectively as Angelenos who represent the 10 million clients of the District Attorney’s Office who are looking to live in a county where safety is prioritized, laws are followed, those who break them are held accountable and the process to get there is fair, impartial, ethical and effective.”
Hochman ran for state attorney general as a Republican in 2022, losing to Democrat Rob Bonta. The district attorney race was non-partisan, but Hochman changed his registration from Republican to “decline to state,” and painted himself as an independent, centrist candidate -- contrasting himself against the progressive Gascón.
In addition to Schwarzenegger, former District Attorney Jackie Lacey, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell, Sheriff Robert Luna, County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park were among those in attendance at Tuesday’s swearing-in.
Hochman said he will be the first district attorney to bring the perspectives of having been a federal prosecutor, an assistant attorney general, a Los Angeles City Ethics Commission president and a defense attorney.
He said he has spoken to thousands of residents throughout Los Angeles County over the past 1 1/2 years and found that “one thing has been unifying these folks, and probably just one thing -- their frustration with their safety, the fact that they basically have the notion of fear enter into their calculations of their daily existence.”
“That stops here on day one,” he said. “... We begin to get our house of safety in order starting today.”
Hochman said he rejects “extreme policies on both ends,” and vowed to put an end to “blanket policies” that he referred to as “inherently lazy.”
“No longer will gang members get a free pass from the gang enhancement when they commit these violent crimes,” the new district attorney said. “We will eliminate blanket extreme policies that prevented prosecutors from going with victims’ families who had lost a son, a daughter, a relative to a murder when that murderer was before a parole board seeking to get out of prison early. Those policies were heartless and they are eliminated starting today.”
He said he plans to lead task forces dealing with homelessness, fentanyl poisoning, human trafficking, hate crimes, organized retail crime and residential burglaries, saying that the District Attorney’s Office “will no longer take no action or watch what’s happening from the sidelines.”
The district attorney said he is going to be working with “one of the most talented and diverse set of prosecutors in the nation,” saying “they are effectively my Shohei Ohtanis, my Mookie Betts, my Freddie Freemans.” He vowed that he “will be the district attorney who will have their back.”
Gascón survived two attempts to recall him, and was accused by 20 prosecutors of workplace retaliation during his tenure.
Lacey -- who lost her bid for a third term to Gascón four years ago and endorsed Hochman in his bid to replace Gascón -- sat in the front row at the ceremony and told City News Service afterward that “it was a very emotional moment for me because I haven’t been here in, you know, four years.”
“... I’m just thrilled that the voters got the memo -- that safety is important, that you can do reform with safety, so to me it’s a drop-the- mike moment,” Lacey said.
Hochman will carry into office what amounts to a mandate from L.A. County voters to get tougher on crime -- with the latest numbers giving him more than 1.9 million votes, or just under 60%, compared to Gascón’s 1.3 million votes. Gascón conceded defeat on Nov. 6, one day after Election Day.
Gascón was swept into office four years ago on a progressive platform - - but he became a target of critics, prominently Hochman, who accused him of being soft on crime as high-profile robberies, assaults and killings grabbed headlines.
Gascón defended his record, denying that his policies led to an increase in crime and insisting that statistics show actual drops in many categories. But Hochman disputed those claims.
“We’ll go back to just two things -- the facts and the law,” Hochman told his supporters on election night in Beverly Hills, where he grew up.
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents county prosecutors, hailed Hochman’s victory as a “pivotal moment in the fight to return balance and accountability to the justice system and to prioritize public safety in a county that has seen a dangerous decline under the failed leadership of George Gascón.”
During a pre-election debate hosted by KNX News and the Los Angeles Times, Gascón highlighted his progressive policies -- several of which he implemented once he took office in 2020 -- such as limiting extra-long sentences for people accused of using a gun or being a gang member, prosecutions of juveniles as adults and no longer seeking the death penalty, though he later revised some of his policies.
But Hochman said such policies led to an increase in crime across the county, and that he would revoke several of Gascón’s directives.
Hochman had touted his “hard middle approach,” stating it will not lead to mass incarceration but rather that cases would be reviewed individually and punishment meted out proportionally for the crime committed.
According to the California Department of Justice, violent crime went up about 8% from 2019 to 2023 countywide, though in Los Angeles violent crime decreased by about 6%.
Gascón insisted that his office had been holding criminals accountable for their crimes, including retail and residential theft. However, Hochman pointed to high-profile robberies of homes, 7-Eleven stores, retail and other local businesses that he said have led to increased concerns from residents and business owners over public safety.
“We need to send a very strong message of enforcement, accountability and ultimately deterrent to those residential burglaries, and if they’re coming, for instance, (from) overseas, from Chile or from Venezuela, we have to work with the federal government,” Hochman said.
Hochman said morale in the D.A.’s office is at a “all-time low,” accusing Gascón of creating “a dysfunctional office.”
During his campaign, Hochman touted what he calls his “Blueprint for Justice” that he said would “restore safety and justice to our county.”
As part of that blueprint, Hochman vowed to “restore the purpose of the District Attorney’s Office to fairly, effectively, and vigorously prosecute those who break laws in Los Angeles County based on the evidence and the law.”
Hochman said he would also “restore the integrity and independence of the district attorney by not making decisions based on a party affiliation or political ideology but solely on the facts and the law.”
One of Hochman’s early high-profile cases will involve Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are serving life sentences without parole for the 1989 shotgun slayings of their parents in their Beverly Hills mansion. The brothers are waiting for a decision on their bid for release based on what their attorneys say is new evidence that they were sexually abused by their father.
In the run-up to the election, Gascón announced that he supported the resentencing of the brothers, but a judge last week delayed a decision on the matter until January, giving Hochman time to review the case. Hochman has declined to state a position on the matter, saying he had not yet had a chance to review all of the evidence.
The Menendez brothers’ defense team submitted papers to Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting clemency, but the governor said he would not make any decision on the request until Hochman has a chance to review the nearly 35-year- old case.