Greetings, Fellow Angelenos!

As the year draws to a close, I am proud to share the latest updates and accomplishments from my office. From our success disrupting sex trafficking of minors in South LA, protecting the environment, and engaging and helping our constituents, my team and I are working to have a meaningful impact in our city. 

To kick off this season of giving and giving back, members of my team and I volunteered with the LA Mission to help out at their annual “Thanksgiving on Skid Row.” This event served over 4,000 meals to our neighbors in need, as well as clothes, haircuts and manicures and pedicures. (Pictured with L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna). 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined Conan Nolan on NEWS CONFERENCE to discuss a number of issues, including the City’s new “Sanctuary City” ordinance, enforcing our laws, and her focus on claims, liabilities and risk management. In response to a question about quality of life issues, she said her office has doubled the number of criminal referrals it receives from LAPD and decreased the number of rejections.

“I’m doing my piece of it to take the cases forward and bring them to court,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney

Watch the interview here. 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined Hal Eisner on the IN DEPTH program. They discussed hate crimes in view of LA County’s newly released annual report which showed a sharp increase in the victimization of numerous groups. They also discussed her plans to bring legislation to Sacramento that would address the sex trafficking of minors, and her success holding accountable violators of the City’s Short Term Rental Ordinance. You can watch the interview here.  

“I am very focused on the trafficking and the sex trafficking of minors because I think it’s an abomination that needs to be extinguished in my life,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. 

Since her first day in office, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has been working to disrupt the sex trafficking of minors on South LA’s Figueroa Street. Through an interagency task force she’s helping to lead with Mayor Bass, Council President Harris-Dawson, LAPD’s 77th Community Station and other justice partners, since June of 2024, 171 minors have been rescued. As part of this work, her office secured a one-year closure of one of the motels along that corridor that has allegedly contributed to the violent criminal activity in the area. 

More recently, she announced another nuisance abatement lawsuit against a different motel, alleging that it is anchored by a criminal street gang and, in the past few years, has been the sight of at least seven shootings, over 30 arrests by LAPD, the recovery of 14 guns, plus numerous investigations tied to trafficking, sexual assaults, robberies, carjackings, sales of narcotics and murder.

“For decades, the Figueroa corridor has been a volatile magnet for crime, including the sexual exploitation of minors, and the illegal activity of some of the businesses in the area has helped fuel it. This lawsuit is another step toward disrupting the ecosystem of violence and bringing safety back to this community,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney.

Earlier this year, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that as part of this operation on South Figueroa Street, her office secured a guilty verdict against a 49 year-old male defendant for three violations of the California Penal Code, including solicitation of prostitution from a minor. He was found guilty on all counts and was required to register as a sex offender. 

“Combating sex and human trafficking is a priority of mine and this case exemplifies why this continues to remain a top priority for my office. For far too long, the Figueroa corridor has been an epicenter of trafficking and violent criminal activity and the community has had enough,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. 

Anyone with information related to child sex crimes or other trafficking is encouraged to call the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565 or report tips online.  

As part of her environmental protection work, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office has settled its lawsuit with Monsanto Company and two related companies for $35 million over its decades-long manufacture and sale of polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”), man-made chemical compounds that have contaminated numerous local waterways. PCBs do not readily break down once in the environment, and have continued to drain into local waterways, including Echo Park Lake, Ballona Creek, Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica Bay, the Los Angeles Harbor and Machado Lake, and Echo Park Lake. 

The City Attorney’s Office sued Monsanto in 2022 alleging that, despite knowing about the myriad risks PCBs posed to the environment, public health and wildlife, the company continued selling them while claiming they were safe. The $35 million settlement will be used to pay for the abatement and monitoring of waterways impacted by PCB contamination and to reimburse the City for costs already incurred. 

“With this settlement, Monsanto is being held accountable for the damage its dangerous PCBs have inflicted upon Angelenos for decades. This is a significant step towards cleaner, safer waterways and justice for our City’s residents,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto was interviewed by Spanish language newspaper La Opinión about her priorities. This included a discussion about her efforts to disrupt sex trafficking of minors on the Figueroa corridor and her plans to strengthen California laws related to the trafficking of minors.  

“Lo que quiero hacer es formar un grupo bipartidista de mujeres porque esto no es republicano ni demócrata. Esto es sobre cómo ayudamos a proteger a nuestros niños. Así que estoy tratando de hacer un proyecto de ley bipartidista este año,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. 

She also discussed LA’s new “Sanctuary City” ordinance, the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, and her efforts to crack down on the theft of copper wire and eliminate avenues for corruption in City Hall. Read the interview here. 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined local leaders, law enforcement agencies and victim advocates for MADD’s (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) “Illuminate California” press conference and candlelight vigil, where landmarks across LA were lit up in red and victims lit candles in tribute to loved ones lost.

From 2023-2024, the Driving Under the Influence of Drugs unit (“DUI-D”) in her office filed nearly 5,400 cases involving drivers in the City of LA allegedly under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or a combination of both. This work would not be possible without the Driving Prosecution Grant from California’s Office of Traffic Safety, which the City Attorney’s Office has received for 12 years. It also wouldn’t be possible without the expertise of the City Attorney’s DUI-D team, who are passionate about this work and dedicated to making our streets safer.

“With the holidays upon us, the message is just as essential today as it was in 1980 when MADD started. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t do drugs and drive. Take Metro, designate a driver, call a cab, or take an Uber. Make a plan,” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney. 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined other members of LA’s vibrant Jewish community and colleagues for the annual City Hall lighting of the Katowitz Menorah, which survived the Holocaust in Poland. May this Festival of Lights foster a brighter future for all.  

Let’s go, Dodgers! City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto at Dodger Stadium celebrating with 2024’s World Series MVP Freddie Freeman and some of her City Hall colleagues.   

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, the first Latina elected citywide in Los Angeles, attended the Hispanic Heritage Month reception hosted by the LA County Sheriff’s Department and the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association. Hispanic contributions have been fundamental to LA's, and our nation’s, history. 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined business and civic leaders for BizFed Institute’s “Business Resiliency Forum.” As the nation’s top center of trade and manufacturing, one of her priorities is making our city more business friendly. (Pictured with Rachel Michelin, President of the California Retailers Association, Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, and Tracy Hernandez, Founding CEO of the LA County Business Federation -BizFed). 

City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto joined CASA of Los Angeles (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for the 11th annual Women of City Hall gala, where they honored LA County’s all-female Board of Supervisors and celebrated women working in local government.