Community activists rallied outside the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office on Tuesday, urging a judge to reject a post-trial plea deal for a sheriff’s deputy convicted of beating up an older Black woman outside of a Lancaster grocery store.
L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Trevor Kirk was convicted in February of a felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law for the 2023 incident, where he threw the woman to the ground, pressed his knee into her neck, and pepper-sprayed her in the face.
But in an unusual move, after his conviction, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli proposed a plea deal that would reduce the charge to a misdemeanor, reducing his potential sentence from 10 years to one.
The proposal led several L.A. federal prosecutors to resign in protest, including the chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights section.
“What the U.S. Attorney is proposing and has already filed is an unorthodox and, we argue, an illegal document to give him a post-trial plea bargain of a misdemeanor,” an activist told KNX News’ Karen Adams. “A misdemeanor gives him his badge back.”
The activist also noted that in January 2024, Kirk was arrested for allegedly beating his wife and threatening to bury her in a desert. The district attorney's office declined to file charges.
“If you or I were to do a terrorist threat on our spouse and say, hey, you know I could bury you in the desert, guess what? You would likely face some jail time,” the activist said. “It is a felony.”
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The activists are calling for the judge in the case to reject the plea deal and for Kirk to be decertified, preventing him from continuing to work in law enforcement.
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