Los Angeles County prosecutors unsealed an indictment Friday against a former LAPD officer responsible for the 2015 on-duty shooting of an unarmed man in Venice.
The ex-cop, Clifford Proctor, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a brief hearing in a downtown courtroom.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit, Proctor, 60, leaned over several times to whisper to his attorney but otherwise said little during the hearing, a portion of which was held behind closed doors. He waived a reading of the indictment. He will remain in custody with no bail, and is expected to return to court for a hearing early next month.
The unsealing of the indictment is the latest step in a decade-long fight over whether Proctor should be charged with a crime for shooting Brendon Glenn in the back twice in Venice in 2015. Glenn, 29, was unarmed and involved in a dispute with a bar bouncer near the Venice Speedway when Proctor killed him.
Glenn’s killing sparked protests and outrage, and some of Proctor’s own colleagues even questioned his decision to open fire. Former LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called for Proctor to be charged with manslaughter, a recommendation then-Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey ignored when she declined to prosecute him in 2018.
Glenn’s family sued over the killing and received a $4-million settlement from the city in 2016.
After winning the 2020 D.A.’s race on a police accountability platform, George Gascón hired a special prosecutor to reexamine charges against several L.A. County law enforcement officers in on-duty killings, including Glenn’s.
Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman, who ousted Gascón in a landslide last November, fired the special prosecutor, Lawrence Middleton, shortly after taking office. On Friday, both Hochman and Proctor’s attorney invoked Lacey’s past decision not to file charges.
“The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, under then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey, issued an 83-page report in March 2018 that concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove Proctor acted unlawfully when he used deadly force,” the office said in a statement. “As the indictment has now been unsealed, District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman will be reviewing the case and will make a determination at a later date whether to proceed with the prosecution.”
Proctor’s lawyer, Anthony “Tony” Garcia, also questioned the timing of the charges, noting that prosecutors “determined there was nothing to proceed” back in 2018.
Middleton did not respond to a request for comment. Gascón said in a text message that the “indictment speaks for itself.”
Proctor was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last week when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents noticed he had an active warrant. Proctor has been living abroad for several years, according to sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the pending case. Last year, sources told The Times that a warrant had been issued for Proctor’s arrest near the end of Gascón’s term.
Proctor resigned from the LAPD in 2017. While still with the department, he shot and killed Glenn after a dispute outside of a Venice bar in 2015. Glenn and his dog had been kicked out of the Bank of Venice restaurant for causing a disturbance.
Proctor, who had been with the department about seven years at the time, and Glenn got into an argument and the officer ordered Glenn to leave the area. Glenn responded by hurling several racial epithets at Proctor. Both men are Black, according to court records.
Glenn then got into an argument with a bouncer outside of a different bar, and Proctor and his partner moved to make an arrest. During the ensuing struggle, Proctor shot Glenn twice in the back. Proctor alleged Glenn reached for his partner’s gun, but footage from the scene appeared to contradict that claim.
Glenn’s hand was never seen “on or near any portion” of the holster, according to a report made by the city’s Police Commission in 2016, and Proctor’s partner never made “any statements or actions” suggesting Glenn was trying to take the gun.
The commission ruled that Proctor had violated the LAPD’s rules on deadly force, and a subsequent Internal Affairs investigation found him guilty of improperly shooting Glenn and then lying about it to investigators. He was directed to a board-of-rights disciplinary hearing — an indication the department is seeking to fire him — although it’s unclear what the resulting verdict was.
The D.A.’s office previously declined to bring charges against Proctor in at least two other cases, citing a lack of evidence to bring felony charges in both instances. In 2018, Proctor was sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to misdemeanor count of disobeying a domestic violence restraining order in Orange County.
Hochman’s appetite for pursuing the murder case against Proctor remains unclear and his prosecutors could face a difficult task in convincing a jury to convict. Across the U.S., police officers are far more often convicted of manslaughter than murder, records show.
Proctor was indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, which does not require prosecutors to prove a defendant’s actions were premeditated. The statute of limitations to charge Proctor with manslaughter expired shortly before Gascón’s special prosecutor took office.
James DeSimone, a civil rights attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Glenn’s family, said they hoped Hochman would see the prosecution through.
“The family was kind of whipsawed between different district attorneys that turned this case into a kind of political football,” he said.