LA Deputy Trevor Kirk’s Force Conviction Lowered to Misdemeanor

A federal judge partially granted an unusual request from a Trump-appointed prosecutor to reduce from a felony to a misdemeanor a Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy’s excessive force conviction.

Judge Stephen V. Wilson in the US District Court for the Central District of California wrote Tuesday the court only has authority in “exceptional circumstances” to turn down requests to dismiss felony charges from prosecutors that are joined by defendants, and this case doesn’t meet that high bar.

Moving to toss a felony verdict because prosecutors doubt a defendant’s guilt “is not ‘clearly contrary to the manifest public interest,’” Wilson wrote Tuesday. ...