A mentally disturbed transgender woman who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl could be allowed to serve her sentence under house arrest, after the Los Angeles County district attorney refused to prosecute the 26-year-old as an adult for the crime committed shortly before their 18th birthday.
Hannah Tubbs's case has sparked anger and confusion in Los Angeles, and raised uncomfortable questions for the famously liberal DA, George Gascon, about how he deals with transgender criminals and young offenders.
Tubbs was a boy named James when, on New Year's Eve in 2014, he spotted a 10-year-old girl at a Denny's in Palmdale, California.
He followed the girl into the bathroom, held her by the throat and forced his hand down the girl's pants. He only stopped when someone came into the restroom, and then ran away before he could be stopped. He was two weeks off his 18th birthday at the time - with Gascon refusing to sentence Tubbs as an adult because the defendant was 17 when the attack took place.
On New Year's Eve in 2014, James Tubbs was seen on surveillance camera footage entering a Denny's in Palmdale, California, where he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl
Denny's in Palmdale, at 37050 47th St E, where the girl was attacked in 2014
At the time, police said the suspect was a panhandler with the nickname 'Shrink' who frequented a nearby Chevron gas station early mornings.
He was described as an 18- to 20-year-old man, standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 150 pounds, ABC reported at the time.
Tubbs was described as walking with a noticeable limp and was 'holding his hands down in an odd fashion,' according to a county sheriff's sergeant
The man walked with a noticeable limp and was 'holding his hands down in an odd fashion,' according to a county sheriff's sergeant.
Tubbs then vanished, until he was arrested in Idaho in 2019 on suspicion of battery.
DNA entered into a database that matched Tubbs with the sexual assault at Denny's, and the accused was brought back to California - by which point there were arrests, according to Fox, for battery, drug possession and probation violations in Idaho and Washington.
Tubbs had now transitioned and was known as Hannah.
Hannah Tubbs pleaded guilty to the 2014 crime after being charged in early 2020, and will be sentenced later this month.
But Gascon has said that he will not press for jail time in an adult facility, as the crime was committed while Tubbs was a minor.
Tubbs instead faces a stay at a juvenile custody facility - even though she is too old for juvenile hall - or will be granted probation at a court, according to the LA Times.
The Sheriff's Department has also offered to house Tubbs in an adult facility, likely a county jail.
Tubbs was extradited from Idaho to California, but George Gascon (pictured), the DA, is refusing to prosecute the 26-year-old as an adult
Gascon told the outlet he was concerned Tubbs could be victimized in an adult facility as a trans woman and said a probation report recommended she be sentenced to home confinement.
Prosecutors asked that Tubbs be kept in custody for two years instead.
Tubbs might also qualify as 'developmentally disabled' and has multiple mental illnesses, the LA Times reported.
'The defendant entered an open plea to the court, leaving it up to the judge to decide what the sentence should be,' said a spokesman for Gascon's office.
'Our office is seeking that he be placed in a custodial setting in a sheriff's facility for two years.'
Gascon's approach has sparked widespread anger.
Kathryn Barger, on the board of supervisors for Los Angeles County's Fifth District, said the family of the young girl attacked by Tubbs deserved justice.
'It's useless to catch criminals like Hannah Tubbs if we don't follow through and seek justice for victims such as the 10-year-old girl she sexually assaulted,' said Barger.
'She bears the burden of a lifetime of trauma.
'[Tubbs] will be offered therapeutic interventions under the auspices of 'restorative justice' ... and possibly granted only probation or parole.
'Where is the justice for her young victim and her family?'
A campaign has been growing for Gascon to be recalled
In July 2021, protesters in Santa Clarita demanded the recall of Gascon
Jon Hatami, a prosecutor and supporter of the movement to recall Gascon, said Tubbs was too dangerous to be in the juvenile system.
'This clearly shows you the dangerous aspect of the blanket policies of George Gascon,' he said.
'Here you have a person who has committed at least two sexual assaults of young girls who is now 26 years old and has a history of violent conduct in the past.
'This is not somebody who should appear in the juvenile system.'
LA County Deputy District Attorney, John McKinney, strongly disagreed with Gascon's decision.
'The DA is trying to distance himself from this result and lay blame on the judge when in fact, it's only happened because of his policy against transferring juvenile cases to adult court,' said McKinney.
'Two years is a pathetic outcome for man who is a career criminal with felony convictions in multiple states and who committed forcible sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl in a Denny's bathroom.
'What is happening is our district attorney is ushering him right out the door, back onto the streets of this county and God knows where else he might roam.
'It's madness, it makes a mockery of our criminal justice system.'
Lt. Richard Ruiz with the LA County Sheriff's Special Victims Unit - the same unit that investigated the Tubbs case in 2014 - told Fox his department is outraged.
'I would ask the public to reach out to Mr Gascon and express their concerns and their outrage on a matter such as this involving a sexual predator,' he said.
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