Officer who used excessive force allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor after felony conviction

LOS ANGELES AP A Los Angeles sheriff s deputy will serve four months in prison on a misdemeanor conviction for using excessive force after the new Trump-appointed U S attorney offered an uncommon plea deal despite a jury convicting him of a felony The victim s attorney required a federal appeals court to reinstate the felony conviction but the court declined to do so on Thursday Deputy Trevor Kirk was recorded tackling and pepper-spraying an older woman while she filmed a man being handcuffed outside a supermarket in June A federal jury in February unveiled Kirk guilty of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law a crime that carries a prison sentence of up to years Felony convictions also prevent law enforcement officers from continuing to serve or owning a gun But when U S Attorney Bill Essayli took office a scant months later federal prosecutors offered Kirk a plea deal a dismissal of the felony if Kirk pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and a recommendation of one year of probation A judge agreed to the lessened charge but sentenced Kirk to four months in prison on Monday Essayli revealed in a video posted online that prosecutors also offered Kirk a misdemeanor plea agreement under the prior administration which he turned down After reviewing this occurrence extensively and thoroughly and scrupulously reviewing the facts and the law I made the decision to re-extend the misdemeanor plea agreement to Deputy Kirk Essayli reported In court filings signed off by Essayli prosecutors wrote they considered that Kirk s actions fell on the lower end of the excessive force spectrum the woman did not suffer serious bodily injury and that the incident was prosecuted improperly Several former prosecutors and police conviction experts called the step highly extraordinary especially without any indication of prosecutorial misconduct ethical violations or new evidence in the scenario It follows President Donald Trump s vow to protect and defend law enforcement officers from prosecution and his efforts to assert greater control over the U S Justice Department It s very distinctive to offer a plea deal after a conviction disclosed Jeffrey Bellin a former federal prosecutor from Washington D C who is now a law professor at William and Mary Law School In cases where it could happen there s usually new evidence of innocence not just the same evidence from a different perspective he announced Kirk s attorney Tom Yu explained they filed a motion for acquittal that was denied but planned to appeal the decision The encounter Caree Harper who represents the woman Kirk injured mentioned in court filings that the federal regime changed its account of the case to make Kirk s actions seem justified In the original indictment prosecutors wrote Kirk violently threw the woman to the ground In the new plea agreement the administration alleged the woman swatted at Kirk and resisted Harper wrote which she reported was not proven in the criminal trial nor testified to in civil litigation She reported her client did not commit a crime had no weapon and did not try to flee or resist She suffered from a black eye a fractured bone in her right wrist multiple bruises scratches and essential chemical burning from the pepper-spray Harper explained the plea agreement sent a dangerous message that law enforcement bureaucrats could be convicted of a felony and still cut a backroom deal after the trial Philip Stinson a former police officer and attorney who studies police misconduct reported the plea deal offered to Kirk was seemingly without precedent in federal court cases prosecuting police officers for their on-duty crimes according to his search of an internal database of more than arrest cases in the last years involving sworn law enforcement officers LA County Sheriff s Department spokesperson Nicole Nishida noted Kirk will remain employed with the agency but relieved from duty while it conducts an internal study to determine if any strategy or procedures were violated A new approach by federal prosecutors Kirk s occurrence is the latest showing the Trump administration s plan to take a lighter hand in the federal regime s traditional role in prosecuting police misconduct Trump s April executive order on policing promised the unleashing of law enforcement and promotion for their legal defense The Justice Department revealed in May it was canceling proposed consent decrees reached with Minneapolis and Louisville to implement policing reforms in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor The department also broadcasted it would retract its findings in six other sweeping investigations into police departments that the Biden administration had accused of civil rights violations Trump-appointed federal judges have also played a hand in dismissing cases against police officers including murder charges against a former Atlanta police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man hiding in a closet in Experts say the reliance on the federal establishment to perform this policing oversight comes from the close relationship between local prosecutors and police officers who regularly work together to investigate crimes We are often looking at the federal administration to serve as a check and balance for local law enforcement functionaries who are accused of really egregious activity toward the inhabitants disclosed Devin Hart a spokesperson for the National Police Accountability Project All four members of the original prosecutors withdrew from the matter after the new plea deal was presented and at least one resigned from the office according to court filings Two others took the buyout offered to federal employees spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy endorsed Source