West
Prosecutor sues Los Angeles DA for retaliation after he was punished for 'misgendering' child predator
FIRST ON FOX: A deputy district attorney in Los Angeles has filed a complaint against his bosses for an alleged “extensive retaliation campaign” that derailed his career and saw him suspended without pay and punished further for “misgendering” a convicted child predator and killer – the latest in roughly two dozen whistleblower lawsuits.
“For the past two years, Gascon has tried to silence me,” Shea Sanna, the prosecutor, told Fox News Digital. “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 is accusing Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, the county and other officials of whistleblower retaliation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court filings obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna at the Hannah Tubbs hearing in Antelope Valley Juvenile Court, California, Jan. 27, 2022. (Dave Buchan)
In one instance, Gascon’s office sought to investigate him for “insubordination” while he was away on an approved vacation, the filing alleges.
But much of the conflict stems from Gascon’s handling of James “Hannah” Tubbs, a convicted child molester who also bashed his own friend’s skull in with a rock in Kern County.
“Since publicly opposing Gascón’s mishandling of the Tubbs case, Gascón has set his sights on Sanna, looking to manufacture any conceivable reason to make an example of his perceived disloyalty and ultimately, terminate him,” Sanna’s attorneys at the Dhillon Law Group said in a statement.
Tubbs was about to be paroled from an adult men’s prison on assault charges in 2021, but Los Angeles prosecutors asked for a custody transfer so he could face justice in connection with a 2014 attack on a 10-year-old girl.
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Hannah Tubbs appears in court for sentencing in Bakersfield, California, on Nov. 7, 2023. Tubbs was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2019 murder of Michael Clark, after pleading guilty. (Splash News for Fox News Digital)
The complaint alleges that Gascon had Sanna taken off of the case and prevented him from presenting evidence – then targeted him with “sham investigations” when he blew the whistle on policy and ethics violations.
Sanna raised other ethics issues, including a potential violation of Marsy’s law, which protects victims’ rights, and saw additional retaliation, according to the complaint. He was later ordered to drive 70 miles from his office in Antelope Valley to meet with top Gascon aide Joseph Iniguez and suspended for “misgendering” Tubbs. He was ordered to make the same drive at least two more times, in what the complaint alleges was an “intentionally abusive and malicious manner.”
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“In early 2022, Sanna’s once promising career trajectory was derailed when he publicly revealed how Gascon’s policies had led to a miscarriage of justice in the Tubbs case, nearly resulting in the release of a highly dangerous and violent sexual predator,” the complaint reads. “Sanna also exposed how the Gascón Administration had suppressed evidence and directed Sanna not to oppose defense counsel’s arguments in order to secure Tubbs’s release.”
The Tubbs case garnered national attention because even though he was in his 20s, he was prosecuted as a juvenile in Los Angeles under Gascon, because the perpetrator was only 17 at the time of the crime.
Hannah Tubbs began identifying as female after being arrested in connection with a 2014 child molestation case in Los Angeles County. (Los Angeles County)
Jailhouse phone calls obtained by Fox News in 2022 appeared to show Tubbs and his father hatch a plan to identify as female, seeking to be housed in a girls’ facility or released outright. After the calls came out, the lawsuit alleges that Sanna was told Gascon’s administration was “coming for him.”
Tubbs has a history of convictions of violent crimes and drug offenses in California, Washington and Idaho and has been accused of at least two other attacks on girls, in addition to the one in Los Angeles. His plan for a light sentence in a juvenile facility that kept him off the state’s sex offender registry fell apart, however, when Kern County prosecutors had him extradited to face manslaughter charges.
Tubbs, now 28 and using the name Hannah, is being housed in the California Institution for Men, prison records show. That decision was up to state officials.
Joseph Iniguez, left, and George Gascon at the Reform L.A. Jails Summit + Day Party: Mental Health Matters on Nov. 9, 2019 in Pasadena, California. (Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Patrisse Cullors)
“In the Tubbs case, Deputy District Attorney Shea Sanna did nothing but seek to uphold his ethical and legal duties to present all relevant evidence to the court,” his attorney, Anthony Fusaro, told Fox News Digital. “Yet because this evidence conflicted with D.A. Gascon’s recently enacted policies and public statements, Gascon sought to suppress it. When Mr. Sanna informed his supervisors and the public of Gascon’s suppression efforts, Gascon responded with a relentless retaliation campaign against Mr. Sanna that persists to this day.”
Other high-profile cases that Sanna prosecuted include the wrong-way driving teen who mowed down a mother and her baby in a stroller in Venice Beach in 2021.
Although that case is not part of the retaliation lawsuit, he blew the whistle again on the teen suspect’s lenient punishment. Kristopher Baca was released after just a few months – and murdered in a drive-by shooting before his 18th birthday.
Gascon is facing roughly two dozen retaliation lawsuits from prosecutors in his office.
He’s up for re-election in November, facing a challenge from independent Nathan Hochman. A spokesperson for Gascon’s office said it does not comment on pending litigation or personnel matters.
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West
Newsom staffer who told California reporter to ‘f— off’ is raking in massive taxpayer-funded salary
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Isaac “Izzy” Gardon, the communications director for Gov. Gavin Newsom who made headlines earlier this week for telling a national reporter to “f— off” after she pressed him on the California governor’s reported dyslexia diagnosis, is raking in a hefty six-figure salary, a Fox News Digital review found.
While Newsom’s dyslexia diagnosis has been public for decades, interest in the matter was amplified amid the California governor’s book tour he launched this month. During one of his first stops on the tour, in Atlanta, Newsom was asked about his dyslexia in conversation with Democratic Mayor of Atlanta Andre Dickens, who asked what he hoped readers would take away from the discussion about his diagnosis in the governor’s new book.
“I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom said in response, garnering criticism online that he was pandering to the Black community.
Amid the rebukes from MAGA world and Republicans, Real Clear Politics (RCP) national correspondent Susan Crabtree reached out to Gardon for verification on his childhood disability diagnosis. In response, Gardon told her to “respectfully, f— off.”
Democratic Party Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, holds up his new memoir during a book tour event in South Carolina earlier this month. (Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The testy response led to further criticism targeting Newsom’s office and Gardon, including from RCP’s Carl Cannon, who questioned why people who are offended so deeply by Trump “consistently imitate his worst behavior.” Newsom’s press office has been known to meet the White House’s pointed and often hostile social media posts targeting Democrats, which frequently include AI generated images, with similarly hostile social media posts targeting Trump and Republicans.
When reached for comment on this story, Gardon told Fox News Digital that “Susan is not a journalist.”
“She’s a MAGA blogger who writes about conspiracy theories,” Gardon added.
Transparent California, a statewide public pay and pension database, revealed that Gardon is being paid quite handsomely to be one of Newsom’s most ardent defenders online. Gardon has risen in stature from an administrative assistant making around $30,000 per year in 2019, to earning $212,154.02 in 2024 as a senior assistant and communications director in Newsom’s office.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) seen laughing at an event earlier this month hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Gardon’s “regular pay” in 2024 was $152,091.05. That was also supplemented by nearly $57,000 in benefits and another $3,141.16 in “other pay,” according to the database, leading to a combined annual payment of $212,154.02. However, his current pay, which does not appear to be publicly available online, is likely to be higher.
Following news of Gardon’s response to Crabtree’s follow-up, a senior reporter for the California Post also shared an email from Gardon in response to one of his media inquiries.
In Gardon’s response, he referred to the New York Post as the “New York Comic Book.” Then, when Koehn followed up, indicating the San Francisco Chronicle was covering the same story, Gardon replied, “I’d put that outlet in the same bucket,” according to Koehn, who posted screenshots of the pair’s back-and-forth on X.
A man is seen holding a copy of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new memoir titled “Young Man In A Hurry.” (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
While some top Newsom staffers have praised Gardon’s style, including his boss and senior advisor of communications, Bob Salladay, who told Politico that “Izzy’s creativity and imagination is part of what the governor is doing.” Some Democratic operatives have vocally been critical about his communication style, including Garry Tan, a prolific Democratic donor and CEO of Y Combinator
“Most unprofessional person to ever work in politics,” Tan posted on X. “Izzy Gardon brings shame to the Newsom campaign.”
In addition to the email, Gardon came under fire earlier this month when he referred to rapper and MAGA activist Nicki Minaj as a “stupid hoe” on X. He defended his social media post by pointing to her 2012 song called, “Stupid Hoe.”
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San Francisco, CA
Giants scratch Rafael Devers from lineup with tight hamstring
Friday, February 27, 2026 9:48PM
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The San Francisco Giants scratched slugger Rafael Devers from the starting lineup because of a tight hamstring, keeping him out of a spring training game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
The three-time All-Star and 2018 World Series champion is starting his first full season with the Giants after they acquired him in a trade with the Boston Red Sox last year.
Devers hit 35 home runs and had 109 RBIs last season, playing 90 games with San Francisco and 73 in Boston. He signed a $313.5 million, 10-year contract in 2023 with the Red Sox.
He was 20 when he made his major league debut in Boston nine years ago, and he helped them win the World Series the following year.
Devers, who has 235 career homers and 747 RBIs, led Boston in RBIs for five straight seasons and has finished in the top 20 in voting for AL MVP five times.
Copyright © 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.
Denver, CO
University of Denver to close Ricks Center for Gifted Children next year
The University of Denver will close the Ricks Center for Gifted Children next year as enrollment has fallen in recent years, the college announced this week.
The Ricks Center, which serves gifted children as young as 3 years old, will operate for the 2026-27 academic year before closing, according to a letter DU sent parents on Wednesday.
“The University of Denver has made the difficult decision to close the Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the conclusion of the 2026–2027 academic year,” spokesman Jon Stone said in a statement. “This decision reflects long-term operational and financial considerations and is not a reflection of the school’s quality, leadership, or community.”
The center, which is located on DU’s campus, was started in 1984 as the University Center for Gifted Young Children. The program offers classes to students in preschool through eighth grade, according to the website.
The program, along with other public K-12 schools in the state, has experienced declining enrollment in recent years. The center enrolled 142 students for the 2025-26 academic year, which is down from 200 pupils four years ago.
The center will hold a meeting about the pending closure on March 6 for parents.
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