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New Los Angeles County D.A. Plans To Fire Gascon’s Police Shootings Prosecutor

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Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman says he intends to terminate the contract of a special prosecutor that George Gascón hired to reopen investigations into fatal police shootings, a move that could shake up high-profile cases that involve controversial killings by officers, the Los Angeles Times reports. Lawrence Middleton was brought on by former Dist. Atty. Gascón in 2021 to reconsider charges in four separate shootings that former DA Jackie Lacey’s administration declined to prosecute. Middleton’s contract expires in June, but Hochman has “the option to terminate” the agreement early and is in discussions with county lawyers to do so, the district attorney’s office said. It is unclear whether Hochman or members of his administration have contacted Middleton or what day he will officially be removed as special prosecutor. Any cases he was reviewing will now be handled by the Justice Systems Integrity Division, the wing of the district attorney’s office that normally prosecutes cases of police and attorney misconduct. Middleton’s hiring was an early attempt by Gascón to deliver on campaign promises to improve police accountability measures inside a prosecutor’s office that rarely, if ever, charged police in on-duty shootings before his election. But it also contributed to growing tensions between Gascón and his line prosecutors, who were frustrated by the idea their decisions could be overridden by an outsider.


The former district attorney initially tasked Middleton with reviewing four cases: the 2015 death of Hector Morejon, who was unarmed and shot in the back by a Long Beach police officer responding to a trespassing call; the 2015 shooting of Brendon Glenn, an unarmed homeless man who was killed by an LAPD officer in Venice Beach; the 2013 shooting of Ricardo Diaz Zeferino by Gardena police; and the 2018 killing of Christopher Deandre Mitchell by Torrance police. Middleton has struggled to get any of those cases inside a courtroom. Police are far more likely to be convicted of manslaughter than murder in on-duty killings, and the statute of limitations for the lesser crime had expired or nearly run out on three of the four shootings Middleton was set to review by the time he was hired in June 2021. Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that since Hochman has direct experience prosecuting police, which Gascón lacked, he does not need an outside expert. She also questioned the return on investment county taxpayers got from Middleton’s work. “Hochman feels comfortable that he has experience and he probably has people in his office that he can turn to and direct them appropriately,” she said. “Money counts and expenses matter. He’s probably coming in and looking at his budget. Hiring outside experts is often one of the first areas you reexamine and you cut.”

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