{"id":107157,"date":"2022-03-10T07:17:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T15:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=107157"},"modified":"2022-03-10T07:18:07","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T15:18:07","slug":"op-ed-ignoring-employee-concerns-backfired-for-elizabeth-holmes-how-is-it-working-for-da-gascon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2022\/03\/10\/op-ed-ignoring-employee-concerns-backfired-for-elizabeth-holmes-how-is-it-working-for-da-gascon\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed: Ignoring employee concerns backfired for Elizabeth Holmes; How is it working for DA Gasc\u00f3n?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Eric Siddall<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Holmes convinced wealthy Silicon Valley investors, two former secretaries of state, one former bank CEO, and one former four-star general that she was revolutionizing the entire healthcare industry. She promised that with one drop of blood, her invention could run hundreds of tests. Because of her grandiose promises, she received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from these celebrated individuals. Some would also serve on her board and repeatedly vouch for her. But there was one problem. She was a fraud.<\/p>\n

Notably, it wasn\u2019t any of the rich or powerful who blew the whistle on Holmes. It was frontline lab techs. They saw that the wunderkind\u2019s product was an abysmal, fraudulent failure. When they raised the issue in an email directly to Holmes, she brushed it aside — and forwarded it to the COO. The COO responded to the techs\u2019 valid concerns by belittling their grasp of math and science. Ironically, it was these lab techs who worked with a journalist to expose Holmes. It was these same lab techs who would be vindicated when Holmes was convicted of fraud in federal court.<\/p>\n

Like Holmes, George Gasc\u00f3n cultivated support for his campaign for district attorney of Los Angeles with grandiose promises. He claimed that his innovative policies would drastically reduce prison populations, reduce government waste, improve the environment, reduce racial inequality, and make our communities safer. Like Holmes, Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s vision of an industry-wide sea change drew support from celebrated individuals: wealthy Silicon Valley investors, renowned professors, and Hollywood celebrities. However, like the lab techs, frontline prosecutors have been raising serious concerns.<\/p>\n

On his first day as district attorney, Gasc\u00f3n reduced the possible consequences for nearly every single criminal offense in the county of Los Angeles, from theft to murder. Shooting victims, rape victims and stalking victims saw their assailants\u2019 possible sentences plummet by dozens of years. Parents of murdered children saw their perpetrators sentences drop from life without parole to parole within 15 years.<\/p>\n

To be sure, it wasn\u2019t Gasc\u00f3n or his advisers who saw the immediate devastating impact of these policies. The people who have seen the impact of his policies are his frontline prosecutors. These 800 civil servants, who have dedicated their careers to public safety, are now forced by Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s directives to undermine it. As a result of these directives, they have seen people convicted of heinous crimes released with minimal consequence, they have seen others released without the support they need to successfully reintegrate, and they have seen it time and time again.<\/p>\n

Frontline prosecutors in the Los Angeles District Attorney\u2019s Office are frustrated and alarmed. They\u2019re frustrated because they\u2019re told by Gasc\u00f3n that their concerns are \u201canti-science,\u201d much in the same way that the Holmes\u2019 COO dismissed the lab techs. They are alarmed because, in the face of skyrocketing murders and shootings, it appears as though Gasc\u00f3n is locking up the tools to address the problem and throwing away the key.<\/p>\n

These feelings aren\u2019t limited to L.A. County prosecutors. Others who work in the justice system \u2013 including court reporters, judges, and yes, even defense attorneys \u2013 are alarmed by the negative impact of these policies. Like the prosecutors, they are horrified not just at Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s aversion to meaningful accountability, but also his inaction in the face of a desperate need for a major course-correction.<\/p>\n

It is this collective frustration and fear that compelled the frontline prosecutors of the LADA\u2019s Office to take the extraordinary step of voting to support the recall and removal from office of George Gasc\u00f3n. In the final vote, 97.9 percent supported his removal. A mere twelve voted against supporting the recall. This vote was not taken lightly. It was taken over a year into Gasc\u00f3n\u2019s tenure in office. Prior to the vote, Gasc\u00f3n was invited to meet with frontline prosecutors to address their concerns. Like Holmes, Gasc\u00f3n brushed off and belittled the request.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Gasc\u00f3n should heed the words of the Holmes\u2019 prosecutor – Jina Choi, director of the SEC\u2019s San Francisco regional office. When announcing charges against Holmes, Choi underscored the danger of visionary promises, reminding us, \u201c[i]nnovators who seek to revolutionize and disrupt an industry must tell investors the truth about what their technology can do today, not just what they hope it might do someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Gasc\u00f3n should stop talking about how he might make us safer in the future, listen to his frontline deputies, and talk how he can make us safer today.<\/p>\n

About the author<\/span>: Eric W. Siddall is Vice President of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District Attorneys, the collective bargaining agent representing nearly 1,000 Deputy District Attorneys who work for the County of Los Angeles.<\/em><\/h6>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Eric Siddall Elizabeth Holmes convinced wealthy Silicon Valley investors, two former secretaries of state, one former bank CEO, and one former four-star general that she was revolutionizing the entire healthcare industry. She promised that with one drop of blood, her invention could run hundreds of tests. Because of her grandiose promises, she received hundreds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":103745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107158,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107157\/revisions\/107158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}