LADA Hochman will fire the prosecutor for shooting the Gascón police
County of Los Angeles County. He said. Nathan Hochman says he intends to terminate the contract of special prosecutor George Gascón, who he hired to reopen the investigation into police killings, a move that could shake up high-profile cases involving controversial police killings.
The district attorney's office said in a statement that it “will no longer use” the services of Lawrence Middleton, the former state prosecutor who convicted several Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King's civil rights after he was acquitted in state court in 1991. assault of a Black motorist.
Middleton was brought by former Dist. He said. Gascón in 2021 to re-examine the cases in four different shootings that were Dist. He said. Jackie Lacey's management declined to prosecute. Middleton's contract expires in June, but Hochman has an “option to terminate” the contract early and is in discussions with district attorneys to do so, the district attorney's office said.
Middleton declined to comment. It is unclear whether Hochman or members of his administration have contacted Middleton about the date he will be officially removed as special prosecutor. Any cases he reviewed would now be handled by the Justice Systems Integrity Division, the division of the district attorney's office that usually prosecutes cases of police and attorney misconduct.
Middleton's hiring was an early attempt by Gascón to fulfill campaign promises to improve police accountability within a prosecutor's office that rarely, if ever, charged police with on-duty shootings before his election. But it also contributed to growing tensions between Gascón and his prosecutors, who were frustrated by the idea that their decisions could be overruled by an outsider. The amount of money the district had planned to spend on a private investigator added to the tension: Some called the veteran prosecutor “Millionaire Middleton.”
Records show Middleton paid the county just over $1 million between June 2021 and October 2024. The median annual salary for a Los Angeles County prosecutor is about $135,000, according to the Assn. Deputy District Attorneys. Middleton's salary came directly from the district attorney's office budget, according to a district spokeswoman.
Gascón did not respond to a request for comment.
The former district attorney 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 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 struggled to get any of those cases to court. Police officers are more likely to be convicted of manslaughter than manslaughter in on-duty killings, and the statute of limitations for petty crimes had expired or was about to expire in three of the four shootings Middleton had to review when he was hired. June 2021.
Last year, a grand jury indicted Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on charges of involuntary manslaughter in Mitchell's death. Mitchell was sitting in a stolen car in the Ralph's parking lot in Torrance when Concannon and Chavez approached him in December 2018, prosecutors said. Police ordered him out of the car and believed they saw a gun – later identified as an “explosive air rifle” – between his legs when he fired. Neither officer said Mitchell grabbed a weapon or pointed it at them before they started shooting.
The case has dragged on for more than a year and the date of the trial has not yet been determined. In August, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta denied a motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that they were legally incompetent.
Middleton argued with police that they “created an accident that led to the shooting,” by unnecessarily confronting Mitchell when he was not a threat and had no way to escape arrest as the car was parked against a wall, according to grand jury documents. Attorneys for the police say Middleton is using a “new theory” and linking violations of police department policy to crimes.
While Hochman's move to fire the special prosecutor came as little surprise — he had often criticized Gascón for being recruited into the campaign — police attorneys and supporters of Mitchell's family were furious.
“When former District Attorney George Gascón brought in Lawrence Middleton as a special prosecutor, it was an important step in the police response,” said Melina Abdullah, founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. “The removal of DA Hochman from Middleton essentially gives the police a green light to kill our people and be corrupt as they dare to be completely insecure.”
Concannon's attorney, Lisa Houle, celebrated the news.
“This does not scare us at all. And when the public learns the true details of this case and how Gascón's management treated our client, no one else will be surprised,” he said, without giving details.
Concannon is still on administrative leave, according to Houle, and Chavez is no longer a police officer. Both were among 15 officers linked to the Torrance Police Department's racist texting scandal. The Times found no evidence that Concannon and Chavez sent racist messages, but multiple sources and documents confirmed that they were part of the text and were being investigated as part of the scandal.
In October, The Times reported that LA County authorities obtained an arrest warrant for former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor, who shot and killed Glenn in Venice in 2015. Neither Middleton nor the district attorney's office would comment on the case, but it was pending. which the special prosecutor was reviewing. Multiple sources told The Times that Proctor will be arrested in connection with Glenn's death.
A criminal complaint has not been filed, and Proctor has yet to appear in court. The only way to trigger an arrest warrant would be to find a felony, as Middleton did in the only case he brought to court during his tenure. Attempts to contact Proctor were unsuccessful.
Miriam Krinsky, a former prosecutor and founder of Fair and Just Prosecution, a nonprofit organization that advocates for criminal justice reform, said it is concerning that Middleton's charges will be brought back under the division that declined to prosecute under Lacey's administration. Since Hochman is close to law enforcement, he said terminating Middleton's contract quickly could raise concerns.
“He faced the challenge of assuring the public that he will manage that office in a way that will bring accountability to these problems and not be tainted by the contributions he received that helped him win the office,” he said, referring to Mr. millions that Hochman received in fundraising from legal unions during the campaign.
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 did not, he does not need an outside expert. He also questioned the return of county taxpayers to investing in Middleton's work.
“Hochman feels comfortable that he has information and may have people in his office that he can turn to and guide them in the right direction,” he said. “Money and cost figures are important. He probably goes in and looks at his budget. Hiring outside experts is often one of the first areas you reevaluate and cut yourself.”
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