Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that he’s reducing criminal charges against a Los Angeles Police Department officer who secretly recorded his colleagues making racist, sexist, and homophobic comments from felonies to misdemeanors.
Daniel Flores had been charged with 16 felony counts of eavesdropping or recording confidential communications. Flores' attorney criticized the case, saying he was being punished for exposing racism within the LAPD.
Hochman said that these recordings amounted to felonies, but because they're trying to encourage whistleblowers to come forward, they're reducing those felonies to misdemeanors.
“Now we could have brought, since there were 122 illegal recordings up to 122 criminal charges, but we didn't,” Hochman told reporters. “We brought one charge per individual that he taped, even though he taped many of those individuals many times.”
The case is being put on hold for one year. If Flores disobeys no laws during that year's time, it will be essentially like probation, and the case will be dropped.
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