LA, OC district attorneys want state prison sentence for looters
The district attorneys for Los Angeles and Orange counties are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to convene a special legislative session to enact urgency legislation that would allow state prison sentences for looting during a local emergency.
The proposed legislation was submitted Monday to the state Legislative Council by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman and Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
It calls for the punishment for looting to be increased to between two and four years in state prison rather than a sentence as low as 16 months in county jail, and for the creation of a looting enhancement that could add between one to three years for any felony crime committed during a local emergency.
The measure would also designate looting as a serious offense under California's Three Strikes Law, require suspected looters to go before a judge instead of being allowed to be cited and released, and to make looting ineligible for diversion, which allows defendants to eventually have their crimes erased from their record under current state law.
It would also create a new looting crime of trespass with intent to commit larceny and allow prosecutors to punish thieves who are sifting through the ashes of burned homes to search for valuables, which is not a currently a crime under state law.
"There is a special place in jail for those who exploit the vulnerable in the wake of deadly fires,'' Hochman said in a statement Tuesday. "As hundreds of thousands of families face the unimaginable anguish of fleeing their homes, uncertain whether they'll ever return, the last thing they should fear is the added trauma of criminals preying on their misfortune."
Spitzer voiced similar sentiments.
"Criminals are circling like (the) vultures they are to pick through the ashes looking to steal anything of value,'' the Orange County district attorney said.
"Current law falls woefully short for punishing these scavengers who are nothing more than grave-robbers, stealing the last remaining possessions from those who have already lost everything, including their own lives,'' he added, noting that he and Hochman are urging the governor and the state Legislature "to enact this urgency legislation and help hold these criminals accountable for their crimes.''
