Bill Would Create Witness Protection Program

Saying the need is “abundantly clear,” a key state legislator has introduced a measure creating a statewide program to protect witnesses to crimes.

The legislation was put forth this week by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Woodland Hills), the chairman of the Assembly committee on public safety, in response to concerns that gang crimes have gone unsolved because witnesses are afraid to cooperate with police and prosecutors.

“If witnesses are going to be courageous enough to come forward, then government, at a minimum, should do what it can to protect them,” Hertzberg said.

The bill would create a program--within the attorney general’s office--that would offer cooperating witnesses new identities, physical protection, psychological counseling and money to help them relocate.

It would also elevate the misdemeanor crime of witness intimidation to a felony.

The program would supplement county-run efforts, which prosecutors and police say are poorly funded and inadequate. In recent years, witnesses who cooperated with police have been threatened, harmed or killed in Los Angeles County and elsewhere.

The witness protection problem has been acute in Los Angeles, where two out of three homicides occur without anyone being arrested and prosecuted successfully.

Many of the unsolved murders are gang cases, and police and prosecutors find these witnesses particularly unwilling to cooperate. That unwillingness has led to a deadly cycle in some neighborhoods dominated by gangs: Murderers walking the streets leave residents fearful and unwilling to cooperate, increasing the likelihood that more murders will go unsolved.

Hertzberg said he became interested in improving witness protection after reading a recent series in The Times on homicide investigations and prosecutions.

Sergio Robleto, a retired commander of LAPD’s South Bureau homicide, helped draft the legislation.

Robleto, who has called the existing program “scandalous,” began a crusade to offer more protection to witnesses after the 1994 murders of a witness and a witness’ mother. They were killed after authorities had received warnings that they were in danger.

Robleto said Friday that the new program would be similar to federal witness protection efforts and would be “a huge step forward” for the state.