Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman is not wasting any time.
The newly-elected top cop, who ran as a centrist and won by double digits against his progressive rival, said he plans to fire the special prosecutor his predecessor, George Gascón, hired to reopen investigations into fatal police shootings.
A spokesperson for the district attorney said in a statement that his office will “no longer be using” Lawrence Middleton, a former federal prosecutor who convicted several Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King’s civil rights in 1991 after they were acquitted in state court.
King, a black man, was severely beaten by officers during his arrest after a high-speed chase. He was intoxicated at the time. Footage taken by a bystander of the beating was broadcast nationally. All of the officers were acquitted a year later, a ruling that led to wide-scale riots across Los Angeles. Fifty-three people died and thousands were injured.
“When former District Attorney George Gascón brought on Lawrence Middleton as special prosecutor, it was a significant step towards police accountability,” said Melina Abdullah, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. “D.A. Hochman’s removal of Middleton essentially gives cops the green light to kill our people and be as corrupt as they dare with absolute immunity.”
Gascón hired Middleton in 2021 to look into charges in four separate shootings that his predecessor, former District Attorney Jackie Lacey, declined to prosecute.
However, his hiring led to growing tensions between Gascón and the prosecutors who worked under him. They were upset that Middleton was basically given the green light to override their decision on whether to prosecute. They were also upset that Middleton billed Los Angeles County more than $1 million between June 2021 and October 2024 for his services while they were pulling in $135,000 a year. Middleton was even referred to as “Millionaire Middleton” by some prosecutors unhappy with the situation, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Middleton was asked to review four cases involving police shootings.
They included the 2015 death of Hector Morejon, a 19-year-old unarmed man shot in the back by Long Beach Police Officer Jeffrey Meyer, who was responding to a trespassing call and said he thought Morejon was about to turn around toward him with a handgun in his hand. No weapons were recovered at the scene. Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Meyer’s actions on April 23, 2015, did not rise to the level of criminal conduct.
The second case involved the 2015 shooting of Brendon Glenn, an unarmed homeless man who was killed in Venice Beach by LAPD officer Clifford Proctor.
Proctor and his partner responded to a complaint that a homeless man was harassing customers outside a restaurant. When they got to the scene, Glenn was leaving. But then Glenn made his way to a nearby bar where he started to yell at patrons and got into an altercation with a bouncer. The officers walked over, ready to take Glenn into custody, but he fought back. Proctor told investigators he saw Glenn’s hand on his partner’s holster and thought he was trying to grab the gun. Proctor then opened fire, hitting Glenn in the back. Security video from the bar and statements from Proctor’s partner and others disputed his account. No charges have been filed.
The third case involved the 2013 shooting death of Ricardo Diaz Zeferino, 35, by two Gardena police officers. Grainy video footage from dash cameras shows three men mistakenly suspected of stealing a bike standing in a street under police lights. Officers screamed at the men to put their hands up. Two did, but Zeferino seemed confused, and he dropped and raised his arms repeatedly. After he removed the baseball cap from his head, officers started shooting. He was shot eight times.
The fourth case involves the 2018 killing of Christopher Deandre Mitchell by Torrance police. Mitchell was sitting in a stolen vehicle in a Ralph’s parking lot when he was approached by officers Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez. The officers ordered Mitchell out of the car. They said they thought they saw a firearm between his legs and thought he was about to shoot when they opened fire. The firearm ended up being a “break barrel air rifle,” which uses a spring to compress a cylinder which then shoots out a pellet at a high speed.
Last year, a grand jury indicted Concannon and Chavez on manslaughter charges. The case has dragged on for more than a year but no trial date has been set.
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Middleton has struggled on all four of the cases and failed to get the majority before a judge.
Calls to Middleton for comment were not returned. It is unclear when he will be off the payroll.
