LOSANGues – After the new Trump-appointed U.S. attorney presented an unusual plea agreement despite a jury convicted him of a felony, a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy will serve four months in jail on a misdemeanor conviction for using excessive force. On Thursday, the victim’s counsel requested a federal appeals court to restore the felony conviction; the court turned down her request.
Deputy Trevor Kirk was seen pepper-spraying an elderly woman while she watched a man being arrested outside a store in June 2023. Trevor Kirk was seen tackling Kirk was found guilty by a federal jury in February of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law, a crime with a maximum ten-year prison sentence. Felony convictions also ban law enforcement personnel from acquiring a gun or continuing to serve.
When U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli assumed office a few months later, federal prosecutors presented Kirk with a plea offer: a dismissal of the felony should Kirk enter a misdemeanor and a recommendation of one year of probation. On Monday, a judge approved the reduced charge but sentenced Kirk four months in prison.
Prosecutors in the first charge stated Kirk “violently” tossing the woman to the ground. Harper wrote in the amended plea bargain that the government claimed the woman “swatted” at Kirk and “resisted,” which she claimed was not supported by either criminal trial evidence nor civil litigation testimony.
Her client did not try to escape or fight, she added; she did not commit a crime; she had no weapon. She had a black eye, a shattered right wrist bone, several bruises, scratches, and major chemical burns from the pepper-spray.
Following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Justice Department declared in May that it was voiding draft consent agreements negotiated with Minneapolis and Louisville to apply police reforms. The agency also said it would reverse its conclusions in six more extensive investigations of police agencies the Biden government claimed to have violated civil rights laws.
Cases against police personnel, including murder charges against a former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man hiding in a closet in 2019, have also been dismissed at the direction of Trump-appointed federal judges.
According to experts, the strong interaction between local prosecutors and police officials—who routinely investigate crimes—helps to explain why one depends on the federal government to handle this policing monitoring.
“We are often looking at the federal government to serve as a check and balance for local law enforcement officials who are accused of really egregious activity towards the public,” said Devin Hart, a spokesman for the National Police Accountability Project.
Court records show that all four of the original prosecutors withdrew from the case following the amended plea agreement’s presentation; at least one also quit from the office. Spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy revealed two others accepted the buyout extended to government workers.
