A transgender woman sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility for molesting a 10-year-old in California has been charged in a 2019 robbery, The Post has learned.
Hannah Tubbs, 26, was serving a two-year sentence at a juvenile facility in Los Angeles County when she was arrested there Friday on a felony second-degree robbery charge, online records show.
Tubbs, born as James Edward Tubbs, will be prosecuted under that name in the 2019 robbery, sources told The Post.
Tubbs is being held on $1 million bail in the Kern County jail in Bakersfield, Calif., and is set to appear in court there Tuesday to be arraigned, online records show.
Tubbs made news in January after pleading guilty to the 2014 assault in a Denny’s restaurant in Palmdale, where prosecutors said the then-17-year-old grabbed a 10-year-old girl and put her hands down her pants in a stall.
Tubbs was arrested in 2019 after she was arrested on a battery charge in Idaho and her DNA matched a national database. She then pleaded guilty to the California sexual assault in November.
A judge ruled Tubbs would serve her two-year sentence at a youth treatment center after Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón declined to file a motion to move the case out of juvenile court, where it was filed because of Tubbs’ age at the time of the offense.
Judge Mario Barrera reiterated several times in court that he was limited to sentencing Tubbs to two years because Gascón’s office did not file a request to send the case to adult court.
Tubbs then reportedly boasted about her light sentence, prompting Gascón to acknowledge in a statement in late February that the punishment may have been too lenient.
While in custody, Tubbs made crude comments about the girl while boasting that Tubbs wouldn’t have to register as a sex offender now, KTTV reported, citing a recorded call to her father.
“Don’t worry about it,” Tubbs told her dad of the case. “It’s a strike, but they’re gonna plead, I’m going to plead out to them and plead guilty.”
Gascón’s statement noted the “extremely troubling” remarks Tubbs made about the case and the young girl she harmed.
“While for most people several years of jail time is adequate, it may not be for Ms. Tubbs,” Gascón said. “If we knew about her disregard for the harm she caused, we would have handled this case differently.”
Gascón’s decision caught the ire of the prosecutor in the case and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who said the judge’s “hands were tied” during sentencing because of the DA’s inaction.
“Instead, we’re left with a 26-year-old individual sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility in isolation, separated by sight and sound from the other juveniles,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in January.
Shea Sanna, the deputy district attorney who was initially assigned to Tubbs’s criminal case in Los Angeles, said a progress report in April showed Tubbs had had about 60 “negative incidents” and was not cooperating with the rehabilitation program she was required to take while at the juvenile facility.
Sanna said he was taken off Tubbs’ case and has been told to keep quiet about the case.
“Not only did they take me off, but they tried to silence me,” Sanna told The Post on Monday. “The person who replaced me still doesn’t even have the file and they didn’t pull up any of the progress reports of how (Tubbs) is actually doing. My office knows (Tubbs) is violent and has no remorse. In fact, the only people who are doing their jobs are being punished and retaliated against, like me.”
While she is facing a felony criminal case out of Kern County, Tubbs still could be released as early as June from her Los Angeles case depending on the outcome of her progress report from juvenile detention, Sanna said.
Since her Los Angeles case was filed in juvenile court, Tubbs would not have to register as a sex offender when she is released.
“There are so many ‘what if’s’ and we don’t know what will happen with the Kern County case, but the only thing we can control is to tell the judge all of the facts so the court could make an informed decision,” Sanna said. “They are not doing that. DA Gascón and his administration knows (Tubbs) is a repeat sex offender and had had other violent crimes.”
Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the LA County District Attorney’s Office, said Tubb’s transfer from the juvenile facility to Kern County jail was based on a 2019 warrant that was approved by a judge.
“District Attorney George Gascón is committed to protecting the public and especially our children,” Santiago told The Post on Monday. “In this case, Hannah Tubbs continues to serve her Los Angeles County sentence, while being prosecuted on an unrelated robbery charge in Kern County. … A no bail warrant has been obtained in the Los Angeles County case so officials here will be notified if she is released from Kern County.”