A federal judge sentenced Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Kirk to four months in prison after he was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of excessive force despite being previously convicted of a felony. In February 2025, a federal jury convicted Kirk of the felony, which carried a potential 10-year sentence, for his actions during a June 2023 arrest in a Lancaster, California, grocery store parking lot, where he used excessive force on a couple. But after the new Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli took office, prosecutors offered Kirk a deal to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.
