Case against D.A. advisor will move forward to trial on six remaining charges

Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta, pictured in 2023, tossed out two felony charges against Diana Teran and ruled the case will move forward on six others. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta on Tuesday tossed out two of the eight remaining felony charges against Diana Teran, a top district attorney’s office advisor accused of illegally using records the state alleges were confidential. Bonta’s office said Teran knew about those deputies and their alleged misbehavior only because of purportedly confidential records she’d been sent three years earlier when she worked at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Ultimately he concluded that, although court records are public, Teran could have then searched for those deputies’ names in the Sheriff’s Department’s confidential personnel data system after she was emailed the records in question. Though state prosecutors repeatedly pointed out that tracking software showed Teran had accessed confidential personnel records hundreds of times while working at the Sheriff’s Department, Bernstein testified that the software in fact showed she did not download any files relating to the 11 department employees from the personnel records system.