State report shows there were no hate crime convictions in Kern County in 2023

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A new statewide report by the California Department of Justice on hate crimes in 2023 shows the number of reported hate crimes decreased by 9%.

In Kern County, there were 16 reported hate crimes in 2023, but none were convicted as such. It’s not the first time there were no hate crime convictions.

Since 2001, Kern County has seen anywhere from eight to over 30 hate crimes each year.

And since 2001, Kern has had three district attorneys responsible for the hate crime prosecutions — the longest-sitting DA Ed Jagels, two-term DA Lisa Green and current DA Cynthia Zimmer.

California law defines a hate crime as a criminal act committed because of the victim’s identity and characteristics, such as gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

In Kern in 2023, despite 10 total cases referred to the DA as hate crimes and six filed by the DA as such, there were zero hate crime convictions.

DA Zimmer declined an interview to discuss the specifics, and no one else in her office was available Tuesday or Wednesday.

But a spokesperson said in 2023, there were four cases prosecuted with hate crime charges, though defendants were ultimately convicted of other crimes.

Without answers from the District Attorney, we don’t know if the hate crime cases were ended by jurors or dismissed in plea bargains.

The total number of suspected hate crimes in Kern in 2023 — 16 — was on par with previous years.

Over the course of 20 years, the most common hate crimes offenses in Kern County were rock throwing, verbal slurs, threatening communication, daubing of swastikas, as well as damage to property, due to biases on race, ethnicity and ancestry, sexual orientation, religion, gender and even disability.

In 2023, the most common offenses were threatening letters, flyers and email, as well as verbal slurs and graffiti.

Also worth noting from the report is that despite an overall decrease in reported hate crime events last year, reported hate crimes against the LGBTQ+, Jewish and Muslim communities grew.

Additionally, the Kern County DA’s office was listed under the report’s “Agency Limitations for 2023” category, meaning it did not report its full year of data.

Neither the state Department of Justice nor the DA’s office disclosed to 17 News the reason for the above limitation.

Click the link for the full report. Statistics on Kern can be found on pages 15, 24 and 26.

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