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“Federal and state laws give deputy district attorneys the right to have an association and not to be threatened if we have a union, and that is what this administration is doing – causing fear and threatening people’s careers if they join or support the union,” Ipsen said. Ipsen estimated about 30 percent of the more than 1,000 prosecutors in the D.A.’s Office have since suffered punitive transfers – banished to entry-level jobs in locations far from their homes. Ipsen said he backed Cooley in 2004 but ran against him in 2008 because Cooley didn’t keep promises, made “punitive transfers” of prosecutors and refused to address union grievances.
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“And in this campaign, the small group of disgruntled employees have endorsed the two other Republican candidates for attorney general.”īut Ipsen disputed Spillane’s contention about a “small group of disgruntled employees,” noting the ADDA board that voted to file the federal lawsuit and the ERCOM complaints has 21 members. “(The ADDA) opposed Cooley in 20 and he was overwhelmingly re-elected,” Spillane said. Kevin Spillane, a consultant for Cooley’s potential attorney general campaign, noted ADDA President Steve Ipsen ran against Cooley in the 2008 election and lost. “This has not caused upheaval or infighting within the office.” “As for the (ERCOM) matters, these have been filed by a small group of four or five disgruntled and, in some cases, troubled employees,” Davila-Morales said. … Cooley simply does not want to have anyone to be able to hold him accountable for the illegal activities and the illegal manner in which he has run the office.”ĭistrict Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Shiara Davila-Morales said Cooley was unavailable to comment on the ADDA lawsuit or the cases before the ERCOM. “Cooley has cut health benefits to prosecutors who have unionized as well as their families.
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“He has retaliated against deputy prosecutors who have simply expressed an interest in joining the union,” said Monforton, who now practices law in his native Montana while continuing to represent the union. Monforton, a former deputy district attorney who represents the union. He is also accused of avoiding subpoenas from the county labor board, which is seeking to have him explain his actions.Ĭooley’s representatives dismiss the allegations as the work of a small group of disgruntled employees who politically oppose Cooley, including one who ran against him in 2008.īut he has to fight the charges even as he seeks to raise his political profile in coming months by exploring a run for state attorney general.įor someone who aspires to the state’s highest law enforcement office, Cooley’s “contempt for the rule of law and for the welfare of his deputies is astonishing,” said attorney Matthew G.
#LOS ANGELES COUNTY ERCOM SERIES#
The fight centers around a series of allegations that Cooley has worked to quash union activities by retaliating against hundreds of prosecutors involved with the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.įor example, he is accused of transferring pro-union attorneys to postings farther from their homes, cutting benefits, demoting them and downgrading their job evaluations. The battle is playing out in a federal lawsuit filed last fall by the prosecutors union and in more than a dozen unfair labor practice complaints before the county Employee Relations Commission.
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“I think it’s unfortunate we are fighting amongst ourselves.” “There is a lot of apparent acrimony between the administration and the union,” said Tom Higgins, the head deputy district attorney who oversees criminal filings for most of Los Angeles and once ran against Cooley. As one veteran prosecutor puts it, infighting, lawsuits and upheaval have turned the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office into a veritable “snake’s nest.”Ī series of legal battles between the prosecutors union and District Attorney Steve Cooley over allegations of anti-labor retaliation offers a rare and sordid glimpse into the office charged with enforcing the law in the nation’s most populous county.