Deputy Trevor Kirk was found guilty of a felony after he violently threw a woman to the ground and pepper-sprayed her outside a supermarket in Lancaster in 2023.

Federal prosecutors under the Trump administration sought to have the conviction overturned, but a judge denied the request.

A federal judge on Monday rejected U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli’s request to dismiss charges against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who has already been convicted of a felony for using excessive force during a 2023 arrest, ordering him to start his prison sentence this month.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said the government’s effort to overturn a jury conviction was “contrary to the public interest.”

The ruling brought to a close a criminal case involving an unusual post-trial plea agreement,

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