A federal judge on Monday rejected U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli’s request to dismiss charges against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who has already been convicted of a felony for using excessive force during a 2023 arrest, ordering him to start his prison sentence this month.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said the government’s effort to overturn a jury conviction was “contrary to the public interest.”
The ruling brought to a close a criminal case involving an unusual post-trial plea agreement, which triggered the resignations of several prosecutors in May and ultimately saw the felony reduced to a misdemeanor.
In an 11-page ruling, Wilson cited a lack of new evidence or change in circumstances of the case in denying the motion to in effect erase the prosecution of L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Trevor Kirk.
“If the Government truly thought that Defendant’s conviction was not supported by adequate evidence, it could have moved to dismiss the entire case back in May. It did not do so. Since then, nothing has changed,” Wilson wrote. “The Government did not uncover any new evidence. Nor did it develop any new reasons to disagree with the jury’s verdict.”
Kirk was convicted in February of excessive force in a case filed under the previous U.S. attorney for the Los Angeles region. But after Essayli, a staunch supporter of President Trump, was named top federal prosecutor for the area in April, he ordered a review of the case and sought its unraveling.
A federal jury found Kirk guilty of a felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law after he violently threw a woman to the ground and pepper-sprayed her outside a supermarket in Lancaster in 2023.
Prosecutors under Essayli asked in June that Kirk be sentenced to probation, but Wilson sentenced him to four months in prison. Last month, Wilson denied Kirk’s motion to remain free while he appealed his conviction to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Wilson instructed Kirk to surrender on Aug. 28 and begin his prison sentence.
In the ruling made public Monday, Wilson said Essayli’s push to spike all charges against Kirk was an attempt to subvert his prior ruling.
“The motion is a direct attempt to override the Court’s decision to sentence Defendant to four months in prison,” Wilson wrote. “Indeed, after the Court rejected its request for probation and imposed a custodial sentence, the Government responded by seeking to dismiss all charges — ensuring Defendant serves no time at all.”
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined to comment. Kirk’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Caree Harper, who has served as a victim’s rights attorney for the woman Kirk was convicted of assaulting, celebrated the ruling as a minor victory in the face of Essayli’s broader assault on the case.
“It’s good that there’s something. Of course it’s not the felony we were hoping for back in May, but thank God there was some type of punishment that’s going to be served on Mr. Kirk. Hopefully [President] Trump does not intervene,” Harper said, referring to concerns that Kirk could receive a pardon after some of his supporters appealed to Trump directly last year.
Late last month, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the case and vacate the judgment against Kirk, citing “misgivings about the case.” They also moved to drop charges in another controversial criminal case, involving Andrew Wiederhorn, former chief executive of the company that owns the Fatburger and Johnny Rockets chains. A court has since signed off on motions to dismiss the charges against Weiderhorn, records show.
The motions to dismiss came the same day that the Trump administration moved to extend Essayli’s term as L.A.’s top federal law enforcement official, despite flouting the normal confirmation process for prosecutorial appointees. He has since been named acting U.S. attorney.
Wilson questioned whether the government filed the motion to dismiss because he did not sentence Kirk to probation.
“This is your Hail Mary,” Wilson said during a recent hearing on the matter. “There’s nothing left.”
Essayli’s decision to offer the deputy a lenient postconviction plea deal triggered the resignations of several prosecutors in May, including the heads of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights sections.
In a federal court filing last week, Jacy Houseton, the victim in Kirk‘s case, objected to the government’s motion to dismiss, calling it “unprecedented” and “unjustified.”
“The U.S. Attorney has now effectively become the advocate for the bad guys in broad daylight,” wrote Houseton’s attorney, Harper.
Kirk had been responding to a reported robbery at a Lancaster supermarket in 2023 when Houseton approached him in the parking lot. Houseton was filming Kirk at the time but was not armed or committing a crime.
In his opening statement during Kirk’s trial on Feb. 4, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian R. Faerstein told jurors Kirk used excessive force against Houseton by slamming her to the ground and pepper-spraying her “when it was unnecessary to do so.”
Kirk and his defense team have argued Houseton matched the description of a suspect given to Kirk as he responded.
In handing down the four-month sentence, Wilson said that, in his view and the jury’s view, Kirk’s actions were “just plain inexplicable.” He said that Kirk “knew there was no danger to himself or anyone else,” before he pepper-sprayed Houseton.
Prosecutors are generally given wide latitude on how they handle active prosecutions. But in a case such as Kirk’s, in which prosecutors are seeking to dismiss charges without presenting any new evidence after a defendant has been convicted by a jury, there is less precedent.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert J. Keenan told the judge that the office found no new evidence but argued not enough attention had been paid to “acts of resistance.”
“Didn’t the jury see all that?” Wilson questioned.
“It’s a question of how it’s presented and how it’s characterized,” Keenan said. “And we’re not comfortable with that.”
“It was there on the tape almost from the beginning to the end,” Wilson said. “This evidence was clearly recorded. … The jury saw all of it.”
After the hearing last week, activists confronted Keenan in the hallway, telling him “this is bigger than Kirk.”
Among them was Raycine Ector, the lead organizer of Cancel the Contract Antelope Valley, a community coalition advocating for ending contracts between the Sheriff’s Department and local cities and schools.
“You are violating this criminal justice system,” Ector said. “What about the victim?”
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