Both operations rely on a chemical known as ethylene oxide to sterilize equipment, but the carcinogen can lead to an increased risk of lymphoid and breast cancers.
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Jason Henry
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A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor alleges he faced retaliation from District Attorney George Gascón for exposing misconduct in the widely publicized case of child molester Hannah Tubbs, who began identifying as a transgender woman after her 2014 arrest for the sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl in Palmdale.
Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna, 36, said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Aug. 13, in Los Angeles Superior Court that Gascón and his administration pressured him to suppress information about Tubbs’ use of gender identity as a ploy to gain more favorable jail treatment and retaliated against him when he refused to comply.
The lawsuit, which also names Los Angeles County as a defendant, alleges Sanna faced further retaliation after reporting and resisting Gascón’s unethical directives.
“For the past two years, Gascon has tried to silence me,” Sanna said in a statement. “He has suspended me without pay, threatened my livelihood, attacked my credibility, tarnished my reputation, demoted me, investigated me and harassed me, all so I would obey him; so I would stay quiet; so I wouldn’t speak up on behalf of those most affected by his misguided political policies.”
Sanna, who has worked for the District Attorney’s Office since 2018, was suspended for five days without pay in February 2023 for misgendering Tubbs. In October 2023, he was demoted and transferred to the Santa Clarita office, resulting in a pay cut and less meaningful cases, the suit states.
Tubbs was just two weeks shy of her 18th birthday when she was arrested after DNA evidence showed that she sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl in the stall of a women’s bathroom inside Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale on New Year’s Day in 2014.
She was sentenced to two years at a juvenile facility after Gascón’s office declined to move the case to adult court.
In a statement, the reform-minded Gascón reaffirmed that he believes juveniles should not be tried as adults, but said he has learned from the Tubbs case that adjustments sometimes are warranted.
In an unrelated case, Tubbs was charged with murder in Kern County for allegedly beating a fellow survivalist group member to death with a rock in 2019. She pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced in December 2023 to 15 years in prison.
Sanna was assigned the Palmdale sexual assault case against Tubbs on Oct. 28, 2021.
Less than a month later, Tubbs telephoned his father from a Los Angeles County jail indicating that he planned to claim he was transgender to obtain favorable housing in a female juvenile facility, according to the suit.
“On the recordings, Tubbs and his father laughed and joked about his transition and his chosen name of Hannah,” the suit states.
Tubbs allegedly informed his father that although it might be difficult, he needed to refer to him by that name in court and use female pronouns. At all other times, Tubbs’ acquaintances used male pronouns when referring to her during phone calls from jail, the suit says.
Tubbs was convicted of the Palmdale sexual assault on Nov. 30, 2021.
After the hearing, the court bailiff and custody staff notified Sanna that a search of Tubbs’ property bag revealed she had not taken any of the hormone tablets given her to assist with gender transition, as each remained undisturbed in foil packaging.
Due to a directive from Gascon ending the practice of sending any juveniles to the adult court system, Sanna’s “hands were tied,” prompting him to request that Tubbs be sentenced to a maximum of two years in a secure youth facility, the suit states.
Sanna alleges he was blocked from presenting to the court 256 jail calls detailing Tubbs’ alleged deception and portraying him as a racist, deviant, dangerous sexual predator.
Sanna was removed from the Tubbs case on Feb. 1, 2022, a day after allegedly emailing the jail call recordings to Assistant Head Deputy Frank Santoro and Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gowan.
The case was assigned to Gowen, who did not review the recordings before authoring a report for a multidisciplinary treatment hearing largely based on the representations of Tubbs, his attorney and his father, the suit says.
“The court did not ask any questions, which Gowen likely would not have been properly prepared to answer, and rubber-stamped the report,” the suit states.
Sanna has acknowledged that in April 2022, after he was removed from the Tubbs case, he asked Larry Droeger, a bureau director for the District Attorney’s Office, for permission to alert the court of Tubbs’ deception.
“My question to you now is this,” Sanna wrote to Droeger, “what do you expect me to do when, as a prosecutor who took an oath to abide by ethical obligations, I am on the sidelines, prohibited from notifying the court of a matter as to which I have relevant material information?”
Sanna has been an outspoken critic of Gascón’s handling of other cases, including one involving convicted murderer Andrew Cachu, who was released from custody in 2021 after serving just six years of a 50-year prison sentence when the D.A.’s former special assistant, Alisa Blair, refused to call witnesses during a disposition hearing.
Cachu originally was tried in adult court even though he was two months shy of his 18th birthday when he shot and killed 41-year-old Louis Amela outside a Palmdale restaurant in March 2015. Under changes in state law since then, however, he was entitled to a retroactive transfer hearing to determine if his conviction should be in juvenile or adult court.
While waiting in jail for his case to be resolved, Cachu was told by his mother Bertha Cachu, in a phone conversation that Blair had agreed to intervene on his behalf.
“That’s Gascón’s special adviser,” Bertha Cachu explained to her son in a recording of the call obtained by the Southern California News Group. “Oh my God! She’s going to be coming in your case. Did you hear that, man? She’s good. She’s the one I’ve been emailing back and forth.”
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Scott Schwebke
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A U.S. bankruptcy judge has rejected a request from embattled Los Angeles developer Shangri-La Industries for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for three motel properties in Redlands, Thousand Oaks and Salinas intended for homeless housing.
Shangri-La filed a petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Jose on April 29 in a move to block foreclosure of and/or financial restructuring on the former Good Nite Inn in Redlands, the former Quality Inn & Suites in Thousand Oaks and the former Sanborn Inn in Salinas.
The three projects, funded under California’s Homekey program launched in June 2020 to protect unhoused individuals from the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, entailed redeveloping the motels for homeless housing.
Shangri-La’s petition also sought bankruptcy protection for a fourth motel conversion project at a former Travelodge in San Ysidro funded under the state Community Care Expansion program.
In orders handed down on May 15 and June 5, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge M. Elaine Hammond concluded that Shangri-La acted in bad faith when it failed to get written authorization from its partner on the projects, Step Up on Second, to seek bankruptcy protection.
“I find that the totality of circumstances support a finding of bad faith that warrants dismissal of the bankruptcy case,” Hammond said in her May 15 orders regarding the Redlands and Salinas properties. Similar findings were determined in orders handed down on the Thousand Oaks and San Ysidro properties on June 5, court records show.
Step Up on Second is a Santa Monica-based nonprofit that provides support services for the homeless, and is also serving as the property manager at the former Good Nite Inn, now called Step Up in Redlands. Step Up also partnered with Shangri-La on six other Homekey-funded projects, including Step Up in San Bernardino, a former All Star Lodge that opened in March 2023 to provide housing for chronically homeless senior citizens.
Step Up in Redlands and Step Up in San Bernardino are the only two of the seven Homekey-funded projects now housing homeless residents that are fully operating. The fate of the project in Thousand Oaks, three projects in Salinas and one in King City remains uncertain.
Los Angeles attorney Brian A. Sun, who represents Shangri-La, blamed Step Up for blocking its efforts to restructure the financing of the three projects on which the developer was seeking bankruptcy protection.
“Step Up inexplicably withheld its consent, thereby thwarting our efforts to refinance and restructure the financing of the projects and their completion,” Sun said in a telephone interview on Friday, June 14. He said Shangri-La is still pushing to refinance or restructure the financing on all three projects so they can be completed as envisioned.
Shangri-La representatives argued in motions filed in bankruptcy court that the developer was authorized to file for bankruptcy because Step Up was no longer its partner in the Homekey projects.
Shangri-La maintains it executed a profit interest purchase agreement with Step Up in November 2022, and that Step Up subsequently sold its interest in the Homekey projects to Shangri-La for more than $2.7 million.
From November 2022 to January 2023, Shangri-La Industries and Step Up used loan proceeds intended for one of the Homekey-funded motel projects in Salinas, at the former Salinas Inn on Fairview Avenue, to fund two of three scheduled buyout payments to Step Up totaling $2,742,346, according to a motion filed by Jonathan Shenson, an attorney for Shangri-La.
Given that Step Up sold its future profit interests on the seven Homekey projects, the nonprofit was no longer a partner of Shangri-La, and therefore the developer was authorized to file its bankruptcy petition, Shenson said in his motion.
In her order granting dismissal, Hammond determined that Shangri-La’s argument was incomplete.
“Based on the limited information provided, the indications are that debtor’s filings are an unfair manipulation of the bankruptcy code,” Hammond said in her order.
Tod Lipka, Step Up’s president and chief executive officer, said its reasons for selling its interests in future profits from the Homekey projects were essentially two-fold: it needed to cover operating expenses and provide services to the Redlands and San Bernardino Homekey-funded properties, and also needed money to fund numerous other projects in 2023.
“In 2022 we realized we were going to be doing significant things in 2023. We had numerous housing projects opening and were going to be housing numerous people like we never had before,” Lipka said.
Those projects, Lipka said, not only included ones across California, but at least one state-funded project in Fulton County, Georgia, to house homeless individuals in apartments.
Step Up continues to provide homeless services to residents at the Homekey-funded motels in Redlands and San Bernardino, and maintains an ownership stake in those projects, Lipka said.
“Just because we sold our (profit) interest doesn’t mean we sold out ownership in the project,” Lipka said. “We were essentially giving up that future revenue.”
He said the $2.7 million valuation was based on an “aggregate present value” of all seven Homekey projects.
Shangri-La, Lipka said, has not paid Step Up for providing its services in Redlands and San Bernardino since operations began at the motels in January and March 2023, respectively. The nonprofit provides and pays for case managers for tenants, security and staffing, he said.
“We had to cover the services of those projects that we are not getting reimbursed for by Shangri-La,” Lipka said. He said Shangri-La owes Step Up $1.5 million for services rendered to date, and he questions where all that money went.
“We’re only beginning to discover the extent of the alleged fraud and deception committed by Shangri-La,” Lipka said.
Problems began surfacing for Shangri-La last year, when a Southern California News Group investigation revealed that contractors on the Redlands and San Bernardino Homekey projects filed more than $2 million in mechanics liens over unpaid work on those projects.
It was later revealed that dozens of liens totaling millions of dollars had also been filed at recorders’ offices in Ventura and Monterey counties by contractors and lenders that were not paid for Homekey-funded projects in those areas.
On April 16, the Redlands City Council terminated its Homekey agreement with Shangri-La amid allegations by the state Department of Housing and Community Development that the developer misappropriated $114 million in Homekey funds.
In January, the state Housing and Community Development Department sued Shangri-La in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging the developer breached its obligations under terms of its agreements with the Homekey program.
In February, Shangri-La sued its former chief financial officer, Cody Holmes, seeking $40 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges Holmes embezzled millions from the company, including funds intended for its Homekey projects, and engaged in bank fraud and check kiting in 2022 and 2023 with Shangri-La’s lenders, banks and brokers.
Holmes, according to the lawsuit, allegedly transferred vast sums of company cash and property to bank accounts and shell companies he controlled and to his former girlfriend, Madeline Witt, a defendant in the lawsuit.
Holmes, according to the lawsuit, used the money to host extravagant parties, travel on private jets, and lease exotic cars — including a 2021 Bentley Bentayga and a Ferrari Portofino. He also purchased high-dollar luxury items for himself and Witt, including two Birken handbags valued at nearly $128,000, Chanel and Louis Vuitton handbags valued at more than $14,000, a $127,000 Riviera diamond necklace, a $35,000 Audemars Piguet diamond watch, and 20 VIP passes for the 2023 Coachella Music and Arts Festival valued at more than $53,000.
From June 2023 to January 2024, a total of 15 lawsuits and other legal actions were filed against Shangri-La by lenders and contractors in Northern and Southern California, including the state’s lawsuit pending in Los Angeles County.
It prompted attorneys for Shangri-La to file a petition in March with the Judicial Council of California to coordinate all the cases so they are heard in Los Angeles. The next hearing on the state’s case, as well as on Shangri’s petition to coordinate all the cases, will be held on Monday, June 17, in Los Angeles Superior Court before Judge David S. Cunningham III.
A motion filed in bankruptcy court by Arixa Institutional Lending Partners LLC noted that the lender extended a $12 million loan, with a secured note, to Shangri-La in June 2022 for the acquisition and upgrade of the former Good Nite Inn in Redlands.
The maturity date of the note was Jan. 1, 2024. But as of April 18, Shangri-La still had not made good on its loan, owing Arixa no less than $13.8 million, including $1.7 million in interest fees and nearly $44,000 in foreclosure fees, according to the motion.
Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said the city continues to work with Arixa, which has agreed to work with the city on finding a buyer willing to continue providing housing to the homeless at the motel.
“Arixa and the city are working collaboratively on finding a new buyer for the property,” Baker said. “Our intention is to continue the operation of the property as it has been operating.”
In April, Step Up in Redlands was housing 132 formerly homeless residents, Assistant City Manager Chris Boatman said at the time.
Shangri-La’s failed attempts at bankruptcy changes how the investigation into alleged wrongdoing by the developer is handled, said Adam Stein-Sapir, a bankruptcy expert at the New York City-based Pioneer Funding Group.
“In bankruptcy, it would be done by a court-appointed trustee and their counsel. Out of bankruptcy, it will be in state court through the litigation already started by the state … plus any additional cases likely to pop up,” Stein-Sapir said. “In short, in bankruptcy it’s a bit more organized and streamlined; out of court it’s more like an octopus of litigation with each arm being steered by a different captain.”
He said the state attorneys will definitely use the fact that the bankruptcy cases were dismissed to show that another court has seen it their way.
“Admittedly it wasn’t after a trial on the merits, it was just a judge looking at a contract and some preliminary documents, but it’s good enough to include in argument,” Stein-Sapir said.
Joe Nelson
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, May 21, ordered the Probation Department to analyze and improve excessively long wait times for attorneys, doctors and social workers visiting Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey.
The motion, approved unanimously, comes after attorneys from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office and the Juvenile Justice Clinic at Loyola Law School told the Southern California News Group that waits as long as three hours were hindering their efforts to provide legal services to clients at the juvenile detention facility.
“Lawyers, doctors, and social workers need to be able to visit their young clients at Los Padrinos, and they shouldn’t have to wait two or three hours to see them,” said Supervisor Hahn, who represents Downey, in a statement. “This is unacceptable. The Probation Department needs to make immediate changes to allow people to see their clients faster and has to be transparent with our Board moving forward about the wait times at our juvenile facilities.”
Related: Attorneys, social workers endure long waits to see LA County detainees in juvenile hall
Hahn co-authored the motion with board Chair Lindsay Horvath. At the meeting, Horvath said ensuring attorneys have timely access to their clients is not only important for honoring constitutional rights, but it helps achieve the county’s goal of “making sure our young people are getting the service and support that they need.”
“Decreasing wait times and increasing predictability for professional services at Los Padrinos is among the actions the Probation Department must take to better serve the youth entrusted to its care,” Horvath said in a statement.
The motion directs the Probation Department to return with a report in four weeks that includes three months of data on wait times, analysis about the causes and the strategies “being implemented to reduce wait times and ensure timely access to visits from counsel, social workers and other experts.”
Defense attorneys told the Southern California News Group in early May that they experienced such long wait times at Los Padrinos that attorneys have to schedule their entire day around such visits.
“Everybody knows that this is the new normal; if you get there past 8:30 a.m., then you’re waiting,” said Roshell Amezcua, director of the Juvenile Justice Law Center. “If you’re not the very first person, then you’re waiting two to three hours.”
Complaints about wait times have come up repeatedly at Probation Oversight Commission meetings in the last year.
The county Probation Department has denied the problem is widespread and indicated only a small percentage of attorneys — about 10% — experienced wait times longer than 20 minutes in April. The department previously installed four private booths in the chapel at Los Padrinos in an effort to improve wait times.
The Juvenile Justice Law Center filed a formal complaint with the department’s ombudsman May 20 reiterating that visits to Los Padrinos had become “unduly burdensome.” Wait times in excess of 45 minutes have been deemed unconstitutional in the past, according to a letter attached to the complaint.
“Here, wait times regularly exceed 45 minutes. Indeed, wait times regularly exceed two hours, and sometimes visits are denied outright,” the letter states. “The JJC’s experience does not exist in isolation. Our discussions with other juvenile defense attorneys at the Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office and the Los Angeles County Independent Defense Counsel’s Office indicate that these wait times are pervasive, common, and well-known to probation staff and directors.”
Jason Henry
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