Los Angeles County DA’s chief of staff arrested
LOS ANGELES - The chief of staff for the Los Angeles County district attorney was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication.
Joseph Iniguez, 36, serves as the chief of staff for George Gascón, who oversees the nation’s largest local prosecutorial office.
Iniguez told the LA Times that his arrest was in retaliation for filming his fiancé’s encounter with police during a traffic stop in Azusa on Dec. 11.
The drive of the vehicle wasn’t arrested, but police arrested Iniguez, the passenger in the vehicle, for public intoxication.
"It’s just unbelievable that a passenger in a vehicle, not just someone walking in the street, is actually being detained, charged and then having to go through the jail process for just being intoxicated," said criminal defense attorney Dmitry Gorin.
"Mr. Iniguez failed a test with the police, in terms of an attitude test. We always say in criminal defense, that if you flunk the attitude test with law enforcement its possible you’re going to jail," Gorin added.
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Iniguez was released shortly after being booked for public drunkenness; he has since filed an internal affairs complaint against the arresting officer.
The LA County DA’s office released the following statement, "The district attorney has the utmost confidence in Joseph. It’s a personnel matter so we can’t get into the specific at this time."
Victim’s rights attorney and former LA County prosecutor Kathleen Cady says the case shouldn’t be handled by the DA’s office.
"It would be completely inappropriate for the district attorney’s office to make the decision whether to file charges. This case absolutely needs to be presented to the attorney general," said Cady.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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