Hydee Feldstein Soto

On September 12, 2023, Feldstein Soto announced that the City Attorney’s Office had filed a lawsuit against the owners and operator of a motel in South Los Angeles that has served as a “hub for prostitution” for several years. She said that, “Prostitution and violence are thriving at New Gage Motel, and this property has participated in and played an active role in facilitating the sex trafficking operation that has engulfed this corridor for far too long.” The New Gage Motel is situated along the Figueroa corridor, which was described as one of California’s most notorious prostitution tracks.[8]

Feldstein Soto said this is not about shutting down businesses or prosecuting sex workers or the victims of human trafficking. Rather, this effort is aimed at putting predators and profiteers in jail, disrupting the johns, and shutting down the illegal activity on South Figueroa Street. Feldstein Soto also announced that this lawsuit was one piece of the trafficking puzzle, and that her office was part of a multi-disciplinary task force which includes the U.S. Attorney’s Office, LAPD, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, and the Office of Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson.[9]

At the start of Labor Day Weekend, on September 1, 2023, Feldstein Soto joined Councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martínez and Tim McOsker to unveil new legislation to strengthen the enforcement of wage theft violations in the City of Los Angeles, which annually cost workers an estimated $1.4 billion. She said, “Every worker, no matter who they are or what they do, deserves dignity, respect, and fair treatment, and nothing is fairer than paying workers what they’ve earned.”[10]

Feldstein Soto also said that wage theft in Los Angeles is staggering and takes different forms. She noted that the City Attorney’s Office resolved five wage theft cases recently, resulting in about $2.5 million in restitution to workers and additional penalties.[11]

On August 15, 2023, Feldstein Soto announced her office had filed a lawsuit against a company that offers luxury party houses for short term rentals saying that they violate city laws and create a public nuisance. Feldstein Soto sued the Nightfall Group, alleging that police have been called more than 250 times in the last two years because of problems at houses that the business rents out in the Hollywood area alone. She stated, “...party houses have deleterious and serious effects on the quality of life for our city. They disrupt communities, violate noise ordinances until the wee hours of the morning, clog evacuation routes, and take valuable housing off the market. I expect this is the first of the enforcement actions we will need to bring.”[12]

Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit against the Nightfall group, and the action of LAPD, was applauded by a group of Larchmont Village residents battling an alleged local party house in their neighborhood. A Larchmont Village resident said, “Yesterday, the City Attorney brought suit against a sophisticated party house operator. The City Attorney also addressed her heightened awareness and concern about these types of destabilizing neighborhood menaces. The North Plymouth Coalition is fully aware of this filing and applauds the City Attorney’s efforts.”[13]

Feldstein Soto said Los Angeles has a party house problem and that her office is cracking down on one company - the Nightfall Group - she says is a major contributor to this problem.[14]

Feldstein Soto announced a settlement in her office's lawsuit against Polymer80, the nation's largest manufacturer of ghost gun kits and components, permanently prohibiting the company from selling its “ghost gun” kits in California without first conducting background checks of buyers and serializing its products. In addition, the company and its founders were ordered to pay $5 million in civil penalties.[15]

The lawsuit claimed that Nevada-based Polymer80 didn’t conduct background checks, making it easy for underage people and people with criminal histories to purchase guns. They argued that this disregarded federal Gun Control Act requirements and broke California gun laws. In addition to the aforementioned prohibitions, the company can no longer provide customer support to those assembling ghost guns in California. Additionally, the company can no longer says gun kits without serial numbers are legal in the state of California in its ads or on its website.[16]

In March 2023, Feldstein Soto asked a court to appoint Mark Adams as a receiver for the Skid Row Housing Trust, which holds a collection of 29 buildings home to 1,500 formerly unhoused people. Feldstein Soto described Adams as "the most experienced health and safety receiver we were able to locate in the state of California".[17] Under Adams' leadership, unlawful eviction notices were sent to some of the Trust's tenants [18] and he was alleged to have a history of excessive billing.[19] In July 2023, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Adams had hosted a fundraiser for Feldstein Soto. She subsequently withdrew her support for Adams, who resigned.[20]

In 2023, the Los Angeles Times reported that Feldstein Soto had instructed city agencies to not interact with the developers of a project for homeless and affordable housing on a city-owned parking lot in Venice, an affluent neighborhood of L.A. The project had been approved by the City Council and had survived NIMBY lawsuits, but Feldstein Soto's actions delayed it from moving forward.[21][22]

Under Feldstein Soto's leadership, her office sued journalist Ben Camacho and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a local advocacy organization, to return a flash drive containing photographs of LAPD officers. The City of Los Angeles had given Camacho the pictures in response to a public records request, and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition subsequently published them on the website WatchTheWatchers.net as well as for download on the Internet Archive [23] A coalition of media organizations denounced the lawsuit as limiting the freedom of the press.[24] Constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky commented that "the city is on very weak legal grounds".[25]

Following the LAPD picture release, Feldstein Soto suggested to several California state legislators to weaken the California Public Records Act of 1968 by exempting "images or data that may personally identify an individual". The ACLU described Feldstein Soto's proposal as a "gutting" of the Public Records Act.[26]

In October 2022, amid her election campaign, Mark Adams hosted a political fundraiser for her, which contributed at least $8,500 to her election bid. In March 2023, once in office, Feldstein Soto petitioned a judge to put 29 buildings, which housed 1,500 formerly homeless Skid Row tenants, under a receivership led by Adams. She told the judge, "He is the most experienced health and safety receiver we were able to locate in the state of California. He has the breadth and depth of expertise that we think we need." By July 2023, Adams resigned his receivership after failing in his duties.[27] A Los Angeles Times review of Adams's record showed that he had a history of overbilling local governments, failing to maintain the conditions of his properties and putting vulnerable tenants at risk of eviction and homelessness.[28]

In 2023, the Los Angeles Times reported that Feldstein Soto had instructed city agencies to not interact with the developers of a project for homeless and affordable housing on a city-owned parking lot in Venice, an affluent neighborhood of L.A. The project had been approved by the City Council and had survived NIMBY lawsuits, but Feldstein Soto's actions delayed it from moving forward.[29]