"Nightmare." That's how Scott Hounsell, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, describes the ordeal he went through two years ago, and is still trying to recover from today.This is another example of Liberals using "lawfare" against political enemies, similar to the Joe Dow investigations in Wisconsin.
"It was the most — the scariest, most devastating nightmare you could ever imagine ever going through ever," Hounsell added. "Because everything that you have and hold dear — my family, my career, everything — was threatened that it would be taken away from me."
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The arrest
On July 1, 2013, a Democratic former assemblyman named Mike Feuer became L.A. City Attorney. When the Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to press charges against Hounsell on July 30, Feuer seized the case. Officer Good contacted Hounsell again to find out his attorney's information. Members of the press began calling Hounsell, his family and his employer to discuss charges Hounsell wasn't even aware of yet.
The media circus that ensued — complete with news cameras camping outside his family home for days — made Hounsell believe this was in part motivated by political harassment. "The City originally wanted to take me into custody at my house, where the press was heading," he said. "When I showed up downtown to turn myself in, it sent everyone for a scramble, and they couldn't get cameras there in time."
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When the city attorney finally dropped the charges May 14 — nine months after Hounsell's arrest — the reason cited was "no victim" and "no forensics." The alleged victim had refused to testify, and there was still no evidence of any Facebook contact between Hounsell and Jane Doe.
The lawsuit
By then, Hounsell had obviously been forced to resign from the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. He had to take up odd jobs to support his family. His name was mud.
On Nov. 19, 2014, he sued the L.A. city attorney for defamation, false arrest, malicious prosecution and violation of his 14th Amendment rights. He sought $3.6 million for reputation management (including $24,879 per month for two years to clean up his Google search results), lost wages, career damage and $500,000 for emotional distress.
On April 9, 2015, Judge Margaret Morrow dismissed his claim based on prosecutors' arguments that they enjoy absolute immunity, but provided Hounsell with a leave to amend so that he can challenge whether immunity applies in this case.
"[T]he LACA enjoys absolute immunity for deciding to file charges against Hounsell, whether or not it adequately investigated the facts of the case, adequately determined the statutes under which it should file charges, or adequately reviewed and/or disclosed allegedly exculpatory evidence," Morrow wrote in her dismissal.
If that's the case, Hounsell told the Examiner, then "The most powerful job in this country then is prosecutor, because the Constitution doesn't apply to you."
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Hounsell and his attorney say that if the judge rules in the city's favor, it "will set a dangerous federal precedent that prosecutors can use their office for reasons to exact revenge and punishment upon political enemies." The city attorney, after all, knew for months that there were no Facebook messages, yet dragged out the case anyway.
Time to remove the "absolute immunity" prosecutors have and change it to "qualified immunity." If there is no thread of consequences,
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