Judge rejects DOJ's post-sentencing dismissal request in police civil rights case

[douglas9]

Calling the U.S. Department of Justice’s request “contrary to the public interest,” a judge has declined to dismiss a criminal case against a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy already convicted and sentenced to prison for violating a woman’s civil rights through excessive force.

Prosecutors want the indictment dismissed not because they reconsidered it or found new evidence, but because of “disagreement with the Court’s decision to sentence Defendant to four months in prison,” U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said in an 11-page order signed Friday and filed Monday.

Wilson called the dismissal motion “a direct attempt to override the Court’s decision to sentence Defendant to four months in prison.”

“Using Rule 48(a) in this way is contrary to the public interest,” the judge wrote, referring to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governing dismissal motions.

“Put simply, the Government disagrees with the Court’s sentencing decision and is using Rule 48(a) to erase it. It has even acknowledged that this is its reason for seeking dismissal,” he continued.

Wilson quoted Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Keenan’s argument that the public interest is “what the government says is the public interest in this courtroom.”

“The Government is wrong—at this stage, it does not have unbounded discretion to dismiss cases. The history of Rule 48(a) makes that clear,” Wilson said.

Kirk is to surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Aug. 28 to begin his sentence.

https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/judge-rejects-dojs-post-sentencing