The new top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles is offering a controversial plea deal to Trevor Kirk, a former L.A. sheriff’s deputy convicted by a jury of felony use of excessive force against a Black woman, allowing him to instead plead guilty to a misdemeanor.
The unusual post-trial plea agreement, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, has prompted several assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted Kirk to resign. And the federal judge who presided over his three-day trial in February is now questioning the legality of the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to strike a jury’s felony civil rights verdict.
Kirk was found guilty on Feb. 6 of one count of felony deprivation of rights under color of law after a three-day criminal trial on charges that he used unreasonable and unnecessary force on Jacy Houseton, a Black woman suspect he assaulted and pepper-sprayed while responding to a reported robbery.
In June 2023, Kirk and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Felipe Alejandre, Jr. responded to the robbery call at a grocery store in Lancaster, north of L.A., and came upon Damon Barnes, 56, who was carrying a cake he had purchased, and Houseton, 58, who was sitting in a car. The two matched the description of the reported robbers.
Police video showed that Alejandre detained Barnes without incident, but prosecutors said that Kirk was “unjustifiably violent” with Houseton, who had gotten out of the car and was filming Barnes’ arrest, telling the deputies they were on YouTube Live, reported Legalaffairsandtrials.com.
Without giving her any commands, Kirk grabbed Houseton by her arm, hooked his hand behind her neck, and threw her to the ground, a grand jury indictment stated. Then he threatened to punch her, placed his knee into her back and neck, and pepper sprayed her in the face twice.
Houseton received medical treatment at a hospital after the assault, and suffered a blunt force head injury, contusions and abrasions on multiple parts of her body, chemical conjunctivitis, and other injuries.
Houseton and Barnes settled their lawsuit against Kirk, Alejandre and the sheriff’s department for $3 million in March, and are awaiting its approval from the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, LegalAffairs reported.
Before his ultra-lenient plea deal was extended by Bill Essayli, the new Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Kirk was facing a sentencing hearing later this month in his criminal case before U.S. District Court Judge Stephen W. Wilson, who had denied his motion for acquittal in April.
Kirk, who was “relieved of duty” in 2023 but is still employed by the sheriff’s department, had argued there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict of felony excessive force.
But Wilson ruled there was, citing “extensive body cam footage” that revealed he had made no effort to de-escalate the situation and instead used “objectively unreasonable force” against Houseton, who was not armed, not attempting to flee, not attacking him, and not actively committing a crime.
Kirk faced up to 10 years in prison for his felony conviction, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines.
The plea agreement filed last week says if Kirk pleads guilty to misdemeanor deprivation of rights under color of law, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will “move to strike the jury’s finding” that he injured his victim, which made the crime a felony.
A misdemeanor conviction of deprivation of rights carries a maximum sentence of one year. The government agreed to recommend a year of probation, and federal prosecutors also aren’t barring Kirk from working as a law enforcement officer.
The judge doesn’t have to accept the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, according to the proposed plea agreement, which specifies that Wilson “may consider the stricken jury finding in determining the applicable Sentencing Guidelines range, the propriety and extent of any departure from that range, and the sentence to be imposed.”
Caree Harper, an attorney for Houseton, called the deal “a slap in the face of justice.”
“I’m not just disappointed. I’m appalled at the notion that the new administration thinks they can overturn a lawful jury verdict,” she said, adding that the Trump administration is “putting us way back into the 1800s with this crap.”
The three assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted Kirk — Eli Alcaraz, Michael Morse and Brian Faerstein — as well as Cassie Palmer, the chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, formally withdrew from the case last Friday, making no public comments.
Alcaraz, Faerstein and Palmer resigned their jobs completely, the Los Angeles Times reported.
On Wednesday, Judge Wilson, a 1985 Ronald Reagan appointee, questioned the legality of the proposed motion to strike the felony verdict.
In a terse order posted to the case court docket, Wilson wrote, “The Court has questions as to its authority to grant such a motion,” and ordered the prosecutors to file a briefing to explain their requested action by May 13, reported Legalaffairs.
The Los Angeles Sheriffs’ Professional Association, a union for L.A. County sheriff’s deputies that has supported Kirk since his initial charge, issued this statement Monday:
“We are encouraged by the recent development in Deputy Trevor Kirk’s case and will continue to monitor the upcoming sentencing closely,” said Nick Wilson, a spokesman for the union. “While this case should never have been prosecuted in the first place, we are deeply grateful the Department of Justice took a second, impartial look at the facts and merits.”
Essayli, a Trump loyalist who resigned from the California State Assembly on April 1 to preside over the nation’s most populous federal court district, endorsed Nick Wilson for the Assembly in 2024 and donated $2,500 to his election campaign, LegalAffairs reported.
Retired U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the Central District of California said Kirk’s post-trial plea deal diminishes “the sacredness of a unanimous jury verdict which required only two hours of deliberation. …The Grand Jury is diminished. A statement against police violence is diminished. The important indicting power of a U.S. Attorney is made out to be a political act.”
Judge Wilson is scheduled to take up the proposed plea agreement and sentencing of Kirk on May 19.
