Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman says he intends to terminate the contract of a special prosecutor that George Gascón hired to reopen investigations into fatal police shootings, a move that could shake up high-profile cases that involve controversial killings by officers.
The district attorney’s office said in a statement that it will “no longer be using” the services of Lawrence Middleton, a former federal prosecutor who convicted several Los Angeles police officers of violating Rodney King’s civil rights after they were acquitted in state court in the 1991 beating of the Black motorist.
Middleton was brought on by former Dist. Atty. Gascón in 2021 to reconsider charges in four separate shootings that former Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey’s administration declined to prosecute. Middleton’s contract expires in June, but Hochman has “the option to terminate” the agreement early and is in discussions with county lawyers 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 or what day he will officially be removed as special prosecutor. Any cases he was reviewing will now be handled by the Justice Systems Integrity Division, the wing of the district attorney’s office that normally prosecutes cases of police and attorney misconduct.
Middleton’s hiring was an early attempt by Gascón to deliver on campaign promises to improve police accountability measures inside a prosecutor’s office that rarely, if ever, charged police in on-duty shootings before his election. But it also contributed to growing tensions between Gascón and his line prosecutors, who were frustrated by the idea their decisions could be overridden by an outsider. The amount of money the county planned to spend on an independent investigator added to the tensions: Some derisively called the veteran prosecutor “Millionaire Middleton.”
Records show Middleton billed the county for just over $1 million between June 2021 and October 2024. The average annual salary for a prosecutor in Los Angeles County is approximately $135,000, according to the Assn. of Deputy District Attorneys. Middleton’s pay came directly from the district attorney’s office’s budget, according to a county spokesperson.
Gascón did not respond to a request for comment.
The former district attorney initially 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 who was 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 has struggled to get any of those cases inside a courtroom. Police are far more likely to be convicted of manslaughter than murder in on-duty killings, and the statute of limitations for the lesser crime had expired or nearly run out on three of the four shootings Middleton was set to review by the time he was hired in June 2021.
Last year, a grand jury indicted Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on manslaughter charges in Mitchell’s death. Mitchell was sitting inside a stolen vehicle in a Ralph’s parking lot in Torrance when Concannon and Chavez approached him in December 2018, prosecutors have said. The officers ordered him out of the car and believed they saw a firearm — later revealed to be a “break barrel air rifle” — between his legs when they opened fire. Neither officer alleged Mitchell grabbed the weapon or pointed it at them before they began shooting.
The case has dragged on for well over a year with no trial date in sight. In August, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta denied a motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds they were legally deficient.
Middleton has argued the officers “created the jeopardy that led to the shooting,” by needlessly confronting Mitchell when he was not a threat and had no means of escaping arrest as the car was parked facing a wall, according to grand jury transcripts. The officers’ defense attorneys have argued Middleton is employing a “novel theory” and conflating a potential violation of police department policy with a crime.
Although Hochman’s move to fire the special prosecutor comes as little surprise — he frequently criticized Gascón over the hiring on the campaign trail — police accountability advocates and supporters of Mitchell’s family were nevertheless furious.
“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.”
Concannon’s attorney, Lisa Houle, celebrated the news.
“We are not at all surprised by this. And when the public learns the true details of this case and the outrageous way the Gascón administration treated our client, no one else will be surprised either,” she said, without offering specifics.
Concannon remains on administrative leave, according to Houle, while Chavez is no longer a police officer. Both were among 15 officers linked to a racist text message scandal in the Torrance Police Department. The Times did not find evidence that Concannon and Chavez sent racist messages, but several sources and documents confirmed they were part of the text thread and under investigation as part of the scandal.
In October, The Times reported that L.A. County authorities had obtained an arrest warrant for ex-LAPD officer Clifford Proctor, who shot and killed Glenn in Venice in 2015. Neither Middleton or the district attorney’s office have commented on the case, but it was among those the special prosecutor was reviewing. Multiple sources told The Times that Proctor was set to be arrested in connection with Glenn’s death.
A criminal complaint has not been filed, and Proctor has not appeared in court. The only other means that could trigger an arrest warrant would be the obtaining of an indictment, as Middleton has done in the only other case he brought to court during his tenure. Attempts to contact Proctor have been unsuccessful.
Miriam Krinsky, a former federal prosecutor and founder of Fair and Just Prosecution, a nonprofit that advocates for criminal justice reform, said it was concerning that Middleton’s cases would be returned to the purview of the unit that had declined to bring charges under Lacey’s administration. Given Hochman’s close ties to law enforcement, she said quickly terminating Middleton’s contract could raise alarm bells.
“He’s faced with a challenge of reassuring the community that he’s going to run that office in a way that would bring accountability to these issues and not be tainted by the contributions he received that helped him win the office,” she said, referring to the millions Hochman received in financial support from law enforcement 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 lacked, he does not need an outside expert. She also questioned the return on investment county taxpayers got from Middleton’s work.
“Hochman feels comfortable that he has experience and he probably has people in his office that he can turn to and direct them appropriately,” she said. “Money counts and expenses matter. He’s probably coming in and looking at his budget. Hiring outside experts is often one of the first areas you reexamine and you cut.”