was convicted by a jury in February<\/a> 2025 of one felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law. <\/p>\nAfter the election of President Trump, the new top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, made the highly unusual and controversial decision to offer Kirk a post-conviction plea deal. <\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson rejected the move, writing that prosecutors presented no new evidence or circumstances to justify circumventing the jury\u2019s verdict. <\/p>\n
Kirk remained employed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department a year after his conviction while his attorneys appealed his case. <\/p>\n
According to a Sheriff\u2018s Department spokesperson, Kirk was relieved of duty July 10, 2023. But he continued to be employed and collect a salary. <\/p>\n
According to county data, Kirk received a total compensation of $201,062 in 2023, including benefits and overtime. He took home an additional $170,000 in 2024. <\/p>\n
Salary data for Kirk for 2025 was not immediately available from the county, but a Sheriff\u2019s Department spokesperson said Kirk remained with the agency until February 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson declined to say why Kirk left the department, citing peace officer personnel record confidentiality laws. <\/p>\n
State records indicate that Kirk remained employed with the Sheriff\u2019s Department three months after California Commission on Peace officer Standards and Training revoked his certification, making him unable to work as a law enforcement officer in the state. <\/p>\n
According to the state agency, known as POST, Kirk\u2019s certification was suspended Oct. 9, 2025, because of his trial. It was officially revoked Nov. 13, 2025, due to his conviction. <\/p>\n
Under a state law enacted in 2021, all peace officers must be certified by POST. A spokesperson for the Sheriff\u2019s Department said individuals can work in support roles and other nonsworn capacities without certification. <\/p>\n
Nick Wilson, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Sheriff\u2019s Professional Assn., an organization that provides deputies with legal representation, said POST decertification does not automatically mean termination. <\/p>\n
\u201cDeputy Kirk maintained his employment status while those legal and administrative processes continued to unfold,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat is not unusual in complex cases involving ongoing appeals, potential clemency review, and administrative proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson said his organization continues to support Kirk in his effort to appeal his conviction, raising money for him and writing a letter asking for Trump to intervene in the federal case.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeputy Kirk used a level of force that deputies across this country are trained and authorized to use when taking a resistive suspect into custody,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThere was no allegation of deadly force and no allegation of malicious intent.\u201d<\/p>\n
L.A. County employees are allowed to appeal disciplinary measures and decisions of being fired to the Civil Service Commission.<\/p>\n
Kirk\u2019s departure from the Sheriff\u2019s Department last month came as the Civilian Oversight Commission sought to create a policy to ensure termination of Sheriff\u2019s Department employees who have been decertified.<\/p>\n
The motion on the commission\u2019s Feb. 19 agenda, which passed unanimously, did not name Kirk\u2019s case, but it was on the minds of both supporters and critics of the now-former deputy. <\/p>\n
Wilson spoke against the motion and called Kirk\u2019s conviction \u201cone of the biggest injustices against any member of the department.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery deputy right now is watching whether leadership stands for fair procedure or proceeds with political theater,\u201d Wilson said during the meeting. <\/p>\n
Hans Johnson, chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission, said he found it troubling that the department still needed to create a policy since state law has required peace officers to be certified since the law was enacted in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is concerning to us,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThere is still ongoing effort to challenge or second-guess clear state policy based on some understanding, or misunderstanding, of labor law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk\u2019s attorneys are still seeking to overturn his conviction in federal court.<\/p>\n
Kirk initially was ordered to surrender Aug. 28 of last year to begin his prison sentence, but on Aug. 15, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson ruled that Kirk could remain free on bond pending his appeal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Los Angeles County deputy who was convicted of excessive force continued to collect a paycheck for months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1052,1436,23395,48025,6246,12303,167,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,3906,98466,98467,2637,225,98465,1557],"class_list":["post-214690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-attorney","tag-case","tag-certification","tag-conviction","tag-department","tag-department-spokesperson","tag-deputy","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-month","tag-nick-wilson","tag-peace-officer-standards","tag-sheriff","tag-state","tag-trevor-kirk","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}