L.A. County D.A.'s Office Drops Charges Against Konnech

[UPDATE Jan. 27, 2024: L.A. County has agreed to pay Yu $5 million to settle a lawsuit arising out of the prosecution.]

I blogged about the charges on Oct. 6 ("Sometimes the Conspiracy Theorists Might Have Something of a Point: The Konnech Controversy"), but on Nov. 9 the D.A.'s office dropped the charges:

In an abrupt reversal, Los Angeles County has dismissed charges against the chief executive of an election software company, marking the end of a case that prominent election deniers cited as evidence of foul play in American elections.

Eugene Yu, CEO of the Michigan-based firm Konnech, was charged in mid October with illegally storing the personal information of poll workers on Chinese servers, a violation of its contract with LA County. Konnech has provided its PollChief software to cities and counties across the country, including a $2.9 million contract with Los Angeles County….

"We are concerned about both the pace of the investigation and the potential bias in the presentation and investigation of the evidence," spokesperson Tiffiny Blacknell said in a statement. The county did indicate that it hasn't ruled out refiling the charges after reviewing the evidence, saying it would "assemble a new team, with significant cyber security experience to determine whether any criminal activity occurred."

I tried to figure out more about what was going on, and couldn't. (Recall that the L.A. County D.A., George Gascon, is generally a man of the Left, so that's why his prosecuting the CEO of Konnech, who had been targeted from the Right by True the Vote, seemed so noteworthy.) There is a bit of a follow-up in a Nov. 16 L.A. Times article (paywalled), but it doesn't seem to reveal much; here's an excerpt:

Blacknell's statement indicated that office leadership found problems with the evidence after the arrest was announced.

"During the course of this prosecution, upper-level management became aware of irregularities in how the case was presented," she said.

In a filing seeking to dismiss the case that was set to go before a judge Nov. 10, [defense lawyer Gary] Lincenberg wrote that the district attorney's allegations were "at best, a civil breach of contract claim." Lincenberg argued that the entire filing rested on the provision in the 150-page contract between L.A. County and Konnech that required poll worker data be kept on U.S. servers.

"These facts do not make out an embezzlement charge, and the complaint should be dismissed," Lincenberg wrote. He added that prosecutors suggested that "Mr. Yu can be prosecuted for embezzlement based on Konnech's failure to comply with a data security provision of its contract with the County Registrar."

Comments

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well what can he be prosecuted for -- there is a public policy interest in ensuring compliance with data security provisions.

[Reallynotbob]

Probably nothing criminal. Breach of contract is a civil matter even when a local government is the contracting party. So... money damages.

[Dr. Ed 2]

We will never have faith in elections until there is the KNOWN fact that there will be CRIMINAL penalties for malefactors.

Otherwise, one so inclined could consider it merely "the price of doing business" and either be really shoddy or outright corrupt. There are people on both sides (some, not many) who would gladly pay to rig an election.

[bernard11]

We will never have faith in elections until there is the KNOWN fact that there will be CRIMINAL penalties for malefactors.

Start with Mark Meadows.

[Dr. Ed 2]

I said "known penalties for", not persons needing to be prosecuted.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

" We will never have faith in elections until there is the KNOWN fact that there will be CRIMINAL penalties for malefactors. "

What, in your judgment, would be the appropriate penalty for Mark Meadows (and perhaps Mrs. Meadows)?

[Bob from Ohio]

"potential bias in the presentation and investigation"

Sounds like they are afraid of the race card being played against them.

Plus, the effort to recall Gascon failed and the election is over, so back to business as usual.

[Dr. Ed 2]

One other consequence of affirmative action is that a disproportionate percentage of minorities are in the public sector and a disproportionate of non minorities are in the private sector.

That's not good.

[Roger S]

This is more evidence that our elections are screwed up. Nobody can even say where election data to be on US servers, or what can be done if it is not.

[NOVA Lawyer]

This is more evidence that our elections are screwed up.

This is the post I knew was coming. Heads its a conspiracy, tails it's also a conspiracy.

Nobody can even say where election data to be on US servers

Yes, they can and they did in a contract. They can sue for breach of contract.

...or what can be done if it is not.

Not true. The state or the federal government could easily pass a law making it illegal to store voter information on servers outside the continental U.S. and provide for criminal penalties. That there isn't a law isn't a good reason to prosecute someone for breach of contract despite that being a civil matter and not a crime, even if you think it should be. Even if everyone unanimously agreed after the fact that it should be. Ex post facto laws and all that.

But maybe they did violate a law, but the prosecution has to do more than show breach of contract.

The state could make it a crime.

[Roger S]

And you wonder why people think elections are stolen? It should not be necessary to pass a law against using Chinese servers. If elections were transparent, then no one would be able to do something so ridiculous.

[David Nieporent]

You understand, don't you, that this has nothing to do with the election? Nobody is claiming that voting tabulations or the like were stored on Chinese servers.

It should indeed be necessary to pass a law against something before prosecuting someone for it.

[Armchair Lawyer]

This is troubling, and smacks of political bias to suddenly drop a case like this, without further comment or reasoning.

Foreign interference in our elections is of paramount concern. Keeping electoral information within the US...and not within China...is of extreme importance.

Within this case however, it appears that discovering the crime and giving it to the proper authorities is more punishable than the crime itself. The person who discovered the electoral information on a Chinese server gave it to media representatives, who then in turn passed it on to the relevant authorities. The media representatives were then imprisoned for a week, for not giving up their source to the courts. Meanwhile, the company head who performed the crime got what...house arrest for a day or two?

[David Nieporent]

What crime?

[Armchair Lawyer]

The answer to that question is in the original criminal charges.

Now, a self-described legal genius, such as yourself, should be well aware of this, and more than capable of reading those charges.

[YepThatGuy]

Only here to note that DA spokeswoman Tiffiny Blacknell was a career public defender in LA County before being hired by Gascon into a “special projects” role, some of which entailed showing up in homicide cases to enter special straight-from-top plea bargains, to the great surprise of the career proscutors who had handled said cases for years and knew nothing of any plea deals.