Golden State Today

Mike Gatto, a former Assemblymember, said that detectives likely had valid points regarding the timing and substance of the investigation, recounting his experience touring the crime scene and the detectives' discussion about AB 109. Gatto was a guest on a recent episode of the Next Round Podcast.

"Detectives were probably absolutely right on substance, but they were kind of wrong, I think, on the timing," said Gatto on the Next Round Podcast hosted by the Pacific Research Institute think tank. “We family members had to tour the crime scene and try to help the detectives if anything was amiss and what was missing and all that stuff. And I mean, this was maybe 72 hours after I had learned my dad had been murdered; I don't think I had slept a lick. And they took me aside and scolded me about AB 109.”

“They said, 'your dad's killer could have been an AB 109er, and by the way, you voted for them',” Gatto said. “As I write in the book, they were probably right on the substance. AB 109, as you two know, was a very controversial law. Governor Brown euphemistically called it realignment. What it really did is it took people who were hardened criminals who had been sentenced to state prison and it realigned them to county jails."

This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Gatto, a former Assemblymember, chaired the Appropriations Committee. Following his father's unsolved murder, he explored crime investigations, law enforcement, and politics in Los Angeles. 

Next Round is a weekly podcast put on by the nonpartisan think tank Pacific Research Institute. Topics explored on the podcast revolve around California politics and free market ideas in the state. Guests include elected officials, members of the media, and policy leaders. 

Pasadena, California-based Pacific Research Institute, founded in 1979, is an advocacy organization whose goal is to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions,” according to the group’s website. Its president is Sally Pipes.