Who was behind the City Hall audio leak? The question may never be answered

After the release of a secretly recorded conversation between four Latino political leaders sparked an uproar at City Hall, two overarching questions lingered: Who made the recording and why?

Detectives suspected a married couple, Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez, who worked at the L.A. County Federation of Labor, where the conversation — which was laced with crude and racist remarks — took place in 2021.

But L.A. County prosecutors declined to bring felony charges earlier this year against either Leon or Vasquez, both of whom have denied wrongdoing. And this week, L.A. City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office announced there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue misdemeanor wiretapping charges.

While civil suits by two of the participants in the conversation are pending, the latest development greatly reduces the chances of a trial that would unearth definitive answers about how and why the scandal was set into motion.

The audio was leaked on social media and then reported by The Times in 2022, sparking furious protests in and outside the City Council chamber, at times shutting down meetings. The scandal led to the resignations of City Council President Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, then head of the labor federation, who were heard on the audio with Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León.

Ivor Pine, a spokeperson for Feldstein Soto, did not say when the decision not to prosecute was made, or elaborate on the office’s reasoning. Approached by a reporter outside her office late Tuesday, Feldstein Soto declined comment.

The decision, which was first reported by the Associated Press, was met with praise by Leon and Vasquez’s attorneys.

“Number one, my client has always been adamant that he is not the one responsible for making the recording,” said Leon’s attorney, Bob Schwartz. “Number two ... whoever did make the recording performed, as we now know, a great public service in the highest tradition of whistleblowers.”

Leon no longer works at the labor federation, Schwartz said.

Vasquez has previously proclaimed her innocence. Her lawyers, Michael A. Goldstein and Hagop Kuyumjian, said the city attorney’s office had not informed them of the decision to not pursue charges.

“If that is in fact true, I’m sure Ms. Vasquez will be relieved that neither the D.A.’s office or the city attorney’s office will pursue charges in this matter,” they said in a statement.

The 2021 recording captured a lengthy conversation between Martinez, Herrera, Cedillo and De León that focused heavily on the city’s process of drawing new council district boundaries and also featured incendiary remarks.

By the time the recording surfaced a year later, Cedillo had lost his bid for reelection. De León apologized for his handling of the conversation, including his failure to put a stop to it. His opponent, Ysabel Jurado, has made the recording a campaign issue, highlighting it at candidate debates.

In January, Los Angeles police asked prosecutors in Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s office to charge Leon and Vasquez with illegally recording a conversation and wiretapping.

California

L.A. prosecutors say recording of racist City Hall conversation was a crime but refer case to city attorney

Prosecutors declined to file felony charges, and it will now be up to City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office whether to charge the former L.A. County Federation of Labor employees with misdemeanors.

May 10, 2024

The LAPD investigation found that between Sept. 19 and Oct. 6, 2022, the recording was posted on Reddit and then amplified on Twitter by accounts that had been recently created, according to a memo issued by the district attorney’s office explaining the decision not to file charges.

Both accounts were connected to a Gmail handle, “laupolitic@gmail.com,” which police then linked to the internet service provider address at Vasquez and Leon’s home.

Neither police or prosecutors directly accused a specific person of making the recording, or releasing it to the public. Documents released by the district attorney’s office earlier this year did not discuss a possible motive.

While prosecutors determined that “a crime was committed by one or both of these individuals,” police could not determine how the audio was made, identify a device used to make it or determine who uploaded it to Reddit. Ultimately, Gascón’s prosecutors referred the case to the city attorney’s office to consider misdemeanor charges.

“Neither suspect was willing to provide a statement and each are represented by separate counsel,” the memo stated.

Police also recommended charging Leon and Vazquez with wiretapping over a separate phone call between Herrera and Justin Wesson, a one-time labor federation executive, in September 2022, according to the memo from county prosecutors.

De León and Cedillo filed separate lawsuits in Los Angeles County Superior Court last year, saying the recording did permanent harm to their reputations and careers. Both lawsuits alleged invasion of privacy and negligence.

The Federation of Labor, Leon and Vasquez are defendants in Cedillo’s lawsuit. De León’s lawsuit named only the staffers.

De León denounced Feldstein Soto’s decision, saying she had “shirked her duty as a criminal prosecutor” by declining to pursue charges.

Cedillo also strongly disagreed with the outcome of the investigation, saying that the district attorney, the LAPD and a judge in his civil case found that the secret recording amounted to “criminal activity.”

“I think it’s an incredible injustice for the people of Los Angeles and those who expect to be able to go and sit and have a private conversation anywhere in the city, state or this nation,” Cedillo said.

On the recording, council members discussed drawing district maps in ways that would benefit either themselves or their allies.

Since the scandal broke, city leaders have responded by pushing for new reforms. For example, L.A. voters will decide next month whether to take redistricting, the once-a-decade process of redrawing council district boundaries, out of the hands of the city’s politicians.

Lawyers with California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office, who responded to the audio by launching an investigation of the city’s 2021 redistricting process, have pressed city leaders behind the scenes to conduct a new map-making process.