Mick Hartley

In 2014 James Tubbs, just coming up to his 18th birthday, dragged a little girl into a restaurant bathroom by the throat and sexually assaulted her. It emerged later that he'd committed a similar act of sexual violence on a 4-year-old girl at a California library just one year before. It also emerged that he had a lengthy criminal record as a youth back in Idaho.

In a decision which would spark international backlash, Tubbs was handed what was considered an outrageously short sentence after pleading guilty to the 2014 crime as part of a bargain.

In a by now familiar tactic, he'd claimed that he was transgender.

Tubbs was initially sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility housing female youth because of his gender identity, and the fact he was technically a minor when he committed the crime. He was also told he wouldn’t have to register as a sex offender following the completion of his sentence.

It was quickly revealed that the short sentence was a result of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon repeatedly refusing to transfer Tubbs’ case to adult court, limiting the scope of possible sentencing options.

In February of last year, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin released exclusive audio from an in-custody phone call between Tubbs and his father in which he laughed and boasted about the lenient sentence he had been offered. The recording appears to have been from just before the final decisions in the case were made.

But then evidence emerged linking Tubbs to the 2019 murder of one Michael Clark:

Clark’s decomposed body was discovered in the Kern River in August 2019. Prosecutors brought charges against Tubbs earlier this month after ongoing investigation into the case resulted in enough evidence for a Judge to bind Tubbs for trial.

So why is this charmer in the news now?

Well – prepare to be shocked – it appears that he's been misgendered. 

Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon has suspended the attorney who prosecuted a 26-year-old trans child molester who was accused of identifying as a woman only after DNA evidence linked her to a cold case crime, according to law enforcement sources. 

Shea Sanna, who had been the lead prosecutor for part of the case, is accused of misgendering and "deadnaming" the convicted child molester Hannah Tubbs, who is now accused of beating a man to death in the woods with a rock in Kern County.

Sanna has argued in the past that jailhouse phone calls show Tubbs, now 27, was attempting to use gender identity to game the justice system – an argument that sources say made others in Gascon's office uncomfortable and led to the suspension.

That's the same George Gascon who originally gave Tubbs the lenient sentence. 

Sanna, in the Mail:

'I was suspended for speaking out against the Gascón Administration,' he wrote on Twitter Friday. 'Misgendering Tubbs while informing them that they were being played is just their excuse for the suspension.' 

Tiffany Blacknell, Director of the Bureau of Communications, responded to the accusation in a statement to DailyMail.com.

'While we cannot comment on the specifics of a personnel matter, I can say that the actions taken by the Department were the result of the findings conducted by an independent County Policy of Equity Investigation,' she wrote. 

'I can also say is that the Transgender community is frequently the target of violent attacks. They are also reluctant to come forward and report their attacks because of how they're treated in the criminal legal system. The LADA office takes seriously our responsibility to treat all people with respect and dignity no matter their gender identity.' 

Sanna has spent months believing that the DA's office is being duped by Tubbs, who began identifying as a woman after she pled guilty to molesting a 10-year-old in the bathroom stall of a California Denny's. 

In December, he tweeted: 'Gascón protects pedophiles and punishes prosecutors. I was prevented from providing the court with evidence that Tubbs was 1) perpetrating a fraud upon the court, 2) a murder suspect, and 3) a suspect in other sexual assaults.'

He claims he's being punished for being a whistleblower after he criticized former Gascon adviser Alisa Blair's handling of a different case.

'So it wasn't when I first 'misgendered' Tubbs,' he told Fox News. '[Blair] did it in retaliation. Part of it, the reason why I suspended, is because I called out Tubbs to the administration and said I have recordings of him making up the name, gaming the system, joking about it and the date that it was made up. And I had reports where he's referring to himself as a 'grown a** man.' 

Sanna also found it ridiculous that Gascon's policies led Tubbs to be put in a facility for juveniles because of when the original crime took place. 

'It wasn't like I was going around being transphobic or malicious — I brought it to their attention that they have a convicted child rapist trying to get himself into a juvenile facility as a woman, and he rapes little girls,' he said. 'Does anybody see a problem with that?'

Apparently not.