L.A. County prosecutors will not file charges against illegal recording of city officials

L.A. County prosecutors acknowledged that the recording of a conversation between labor federation president Ron Hererra, former L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez, former L.A. Councilmember Gil Cedillo and present Councilmember Kevin de León is a crime. However, they have declined to press charges against the suspects. 

The case has now been referred to the City Attorney’s Office to consider charges. 

Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, a married couple who worked at the L.A. County Federation of Labor,  were referred by the LAPD to the Cyber Crime Division for the recording of the confidential communication that captured racist and derogatory remarks at a meeting which took place at the L.A. Federation of Labor, according to a document obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

The document states that the recording was posted anonymously on Reddit by a newly created account, and was later amplified on Twitter, now X. The Twitter and Reddit accounts were connected to a newly-created Gmail account linked to the IP address where Vasquez and Leon live.

Prosecutors were unable to determine how the unlawful recordings took place, the device that was used or who uploaded the recordings. “Neither suspect was willing to provide a statement and each are represented by separate counsel,” the document states. 

Given that neither suspect has any criminal history “and similar charges have not been pursued by our offices as felonies,” the county district attorney’s office declined to press charges.

As a consequence of the leaked recording, Martinez resigned, Cedillo was not reelected and Kevin de León is in a competitive runoff with Ysabel Jurado for Council District 14 in the November election. Ron Herrera also resigned from his position as leader of the Labor Federation.