An LA family has slammed woke DA George Gascon after a suspected drunk driver was released to kill their daughter in another crash – with the alleged killer now free on bail yet again.
Jennifer Blesdoe Bean, 21, was leaving a bonfire on June 12 near Dockweiler Beach in Playa Del Ray when, cops say, 27-year-old Neal Cooper plowed his huge Chevy Silverado truck into her car at 100mph, killing her on impact.
Cooper was taken to the hospital in the aftermath, but was later released.
He is now free after posting a reduced bail.
But authorities say this is not the first time he was released under District Attorney George Gascon’s lenient bail laws.
In fact, Cooper had previously been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in another crash back in February in Manhattan Beach, also in Los Angeles County, but because no one was hurt in the collision, he was released on his own recognizance and was allowed back on the streets, CBS News reports.
‘One of the things that the family is upset about, and we’re not happy about either, is that despite his bail amount being set very high, there was a bail reduction, and he was able to bail out,’ LAPD Detective James Dickson said in a news conference on Monday along with Blesdoe Bean’s family.
They are now demanding answers and accountability in the fatal crash, which her mother, Jedan Blesdoe said, left ‘every bone in my beautiful baby’s body’ shattered.
She added that she is ‘mad’ at the situation, according to KTLA.
Jennifer Blesdoe Bean, 21, was killed in a crash near Dockweiler Beach in Playa Del Ray on June 12, when she was leaving a bonfire
Police have since revealed that the driver, 27-year-old Neal Cooper, was traveling at 100mph in the moments before the collision
The family was only able to find out about Cooper’s previous criminal history when they searched through public records — and found out he had another court hearing for the February crash scheduled.
‘Why did my family have to search public records to find he had another court date, go to his other court date and tell them that he killed my sister?’ Tiffany Lewis asked at the news conference.
She said only after that happened was he ‘remanded into custody.’
‘My sister was 21. She had dreams. She was also a family-oriented person,’ Lewis said of Blesdoe Bean. ‘She loved her life, and her death was preventable.’
Authorities have also revealed that Cooper was driving at nearly 100mph in the moments leading up to the crash, Los Angeles police revealed at the news conference on Monday.
They said that because there were no witnesses to the crash, they needed a search warrant to get Cooper’s truck’s event recorder, which they were able to obtain.
Officers then reconstructed the collision and found he ‘was caught close to 100 miles an hour’ Dickson said.
He now faces possible charges for vehicular homicide, and is due back in court on September 26.
In a news conference on Monday, Blesdoe Bean’s family slammed District Attorney George Gascon for allowing Cooper back on the streets following a February arrest for driving under the influence
Her sister, Tiffany Lewis, said the family only found out about Cooper’s past arrest when they searched through public records
Cooper, though, is not the first criminal to be released back to the streets only to commit another crime.
In June, two El Monte police officers, Joseph Anthony Santana, 31, and Michael Domingo Paredes, 42, were killed by a career criminal who was on probation for a firearm possession charge he only served 20 days in jail for.
The officers were responding to a call of a stabbing at a motel in El Monte on June 14 when they were shot dead by gang member Justin William Flores, 35, who also shot himself dead.
Flores was on probation for a prior gun charge at the time of the shooting, after serving just 20 days in jail for possessing an illegal handgun.
The sentence was handed to Flores in 2021, as part of a lenient plea deal made possible by Gascon’s lax bail laws.
Justin William Flores, 35, was on probation for a prior gun charge when he fatally shot two officers in June
The plea deal also saw prosecutors drop drug charges against Flores, who was accused of possessing methamphetamine, as well as ammunition for the illegal handgun.
He should have been sentenced to a minimum of three years, law enforcement sources have said, as he was already on parole after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.
It has since been revealed that Flores also possessed a lengthy rap sheet for offenses stretching back more than a decade at the time of the shooting, and had been prohibited from carrying a gun since 2011.
And just one day before the fatal shooting, Flores was requested by his parole officer to appear in court due to a probation violation incurred after his girlfriend reported he had assaulted her last week.
Flores’ wife said her husband had previously attacked her and she warned Paredes and Santana that he had a gun inside a motel when they responded to a report of a stabbing.
Flores, however, was not taken into custody.
Still, Gascon defended Flores’ lenient sentence in the aftermath.
He said that Flores didn’t have a ‘documented history of violence,’ and the sentencing was consistent with the laws.
‘We have an imperfect system,’ Gascon said at a press conference.
‘Not only here in L.A. It’s everywhere. I know this is frustrating to hear, and it may not help heal the wounds for some.
‘We do not serve our community when we try to pretend that we can predict 100 percent of the time when these cases are going to occur.’
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has implemented lax bail laws, that critics say let criminals back on the streets. He is pictured in a news conference earlier this month
Meanwhile other criminals have praised Gascon for his lax sentencing.
In a leaked phone call from prison exclusively obtained by FOX News, Luis Angel Hernandez could be heard praising Gascon for doing away with sentencing enhancements that could add time to a criminal’s sentence.
‘I’m going to get that n*****’s name on my face. That’s a champ right there,’ he said in the phone call.
‘F****** Gascon,’ Hernandez could be heard saying in the audio, which was featured in a Tucker Carlson series about the rising crime in the City of Angels. ‘That’s the n***** right there, bro. He’s making historic changes for all of us, bro.’
Hernandez is currently serving time for shooting and killing a delivery person for a marijuana delivery service during an armed robbery in 2018.
Los Angeles residents upset with the woke District Attorney’s policies have since tried to recall Gascon, but their efforts failed when organizers ruled that 200,000 signatures were invalid.
The recall organizers needed to gather nearly 570,000 valid petition signatures to schedule an election.
But county officials found only about 520,000 out of 710,000 gathered were valid, well below the threshold, after disqualifying nearly 200,000 signatures turned in.