Los Angeles County changes sex crime policy after boy’s slaying
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Los Angeles County prosecutors must speed up the filing of felony charges against persons accused of sex crimes or violence against family members, according to a new policy announcement Thursday.
The announcement follows a recent Los Angeles Times report highlighting how a backlog of criminal cases in the district attorney’s office may have played a role in the sexual assault and slaying of a 13-year-old boy.
Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Katz said Thursday that once a decision has been made to seek an arrest warrant in such cases, the process to file a criminal complaint must begin within one business day, according to a copy of an officewide memo reviewed by The Times.
“The urgency with which a case should be processed and filed is particularly great when the underlying conduct involves family violence or a sexual assault, including matters in which the accused is not in custody,” Katz wrote.
A spokesperson for Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said Thursday that there was a push “to streamline case processing at every level — from filing deputies to support staff — to ensure expeditious justice without sacrificing the standards needed to file a case.”
“This common-sense approach is consistent with the District Attorney’s determination to reduce the number of cases that piled up under the previous administration despite the staffing challenges the office currently faces,” the statement from the district attorney’s office said. “With this new policy, District Attorney Hochman is ensuring that sex crimes and crimes involving domestic violence are given the highest attention, reflecting a collaborative effort to bolster public trust in the criminal justice system.”
A sex abuse allegation against a youth soccer coach appears to have languished for months before the coach was charged with killing a 13-year-old boy.
The policy announcement comes roughly 24 hours after The Times published a report confirming that a backlog of thousands of pending cases in the district attorney’s office played a role in delaying charges against Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino, 43, a once-revered North Hollywood youth soccer coach who now stands accused of murder in the death of one of his players, 13-year-old Oscar Omar Hernandez.
A 16-year-old boy had accused Garcia-Aquino of sexual misconduct in February 2024, and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department presented a case to prosecutors for filing in May. But charges weren’t filed for more than 10 months due to a backlog of nearly 10,000 cases, according to multiple law enforcement sources and an email reviewed by The Times.
The district attorney’s office confirmed the backlog was a factor in delaying charges against Garcia-Aquino this week. But in a statement, the office said it had also suggested the case may have been slowed by requests for “additional forensic testing of evidence.”
However, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said detectives on the case were never “asked for additional information or testing on the case by the D.A.’s office.”
“The toxicology report was submitted with [the investigator’s] completed report in May 2024,” spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.
The boy, whom friends and family called Omar, was last seen boarding a Metrolink train to Palmdale, where he was supposed to help Garcia-Aquino make soccer jerseys. The coach is accused of killing him during a lewd act on March 28, and the seventh-grader’s body was found in Ventura County in early April.
Prosecutors filed charges against Garcia-Aquino in the older case on April 2 — four days after Omar was killed.
Concerns about a growing backlog of criminal cases reached a fever pitch during the tenure of then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón. In July 2023, public records showed that about 10,000 criminal cases presented by law enforcement in 2021 and 2022 were still awaiting a filing decision. Among those were defendants accused of murder, domestic violence and weapons offenses.
The killing of a 13-year-old boy and criminal charges against his trusted soccer coach have profoundly shaken this Latin American immigrant community in Los Angeles.
Hochman and the president of the union that represents rank-and-file prosecutors said the backlog was caused by a decision by Gascón to centralize filings electronically, as well as a staffing crisis within the district attorney’s office. There are about 750 deputy district attorneys left in Hochman’s ranks, the smallest roster the office has seen in decades, according to Ryan Erlich, the union president. That figure does not include about 50 management-level prosecutors, who rarely handle trials or filing decisions.
Gascón has not responded to requests for comment. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the policy shift Thursday.
Hochman repeatedly attacked Gascón about the conditions that led to the backlog on the campaign trail last year, and said he has stepped up efforts to clear the queue in recent weeks.
Garcia-Aquino is charged with murder and several counts of sexual abuse against two other players stemming from allegations dating to 2022. Authorities have warned there may be more victims. The coach did not enter a plea during a brief appearance in a downtown courtroom this week.
Representatives of the victim’s family have expressed outrage that Garcia-Aquino wasn’t arrested sooner.
“I am stunned it took so long to file these charges. They could have saved this boy’s life,” Michael Carrillo, an attorney for Omar’s family, said this week. “Somebody needs to be held accountable here for keeping this man on the streets and it led to this boy’s killing. ... Someone needs to come to the family and explain how this could be allowed to happen.”
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