The Los Angeles police officer at the center of the fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Venice Beach, Calif., two years ago is now facing charges that he committed domestic violence against two women in California’s Orange County.
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Clifford Proctor, a nine-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, has been charged with misdemeanor battery in connection with a September incident in Huntington Beach, the Los Angeles Times reports.
At the same time, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is still considering whether or not to charge Proctor in the 2015 shooting death of Brendon Glenn near the Venice boardwalk. As the Times notes, the shooting was one of the most high-profile shootings by the LAPD in recent years and marked the first time that Charlie Beck, in his capacity as police chief, recommended criminal charges against an officer in an on-duty shooting.
District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office has spent nearly two years reviewing the shooting, frustrating many city residents who have circulated petitions demanding that she prosecute the officer.
Proctor appeared in a Westminster, Calif., courtroom April 21 for a hearing related to the domestic abuse charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The circumstances surrounding the domestic violence charges are unclear; at least one of the women has sought a restraining order against Proctor, but the request was sealed by the court. Neither woman has been identified.
According to the Times, this is the second time since 2015 that Proctor has been the focus of a criminal investigation. While he was on leave last year following the deadly shooting, LAPD’s internal-affairs department presented a case to Los Angeles prosecutors that alleged he had been working a side job.
From the Times:
Proctor was allegedly “not at home when he was supposed to be,” according to a memo from the district attorney’s office. The document gives sparse details about the accusation, but says investigators estimated the city had lost about $1,770 as a result.
The D.A.’s office declined to file charges, citing the “nominal basis for criminal liability” and the fact that the alleged financial loss fell short of the threshold of a felony. District attorney’s officials instead referred the case to city prosecutors, who said there was insufficient evidence to warrant a criminal filing.
The Times reports that Proctor was the subject of another inquiry into whether or not he filed a false report after making an arrest in 2012. Prosecutors in that case determined that although Proctor had omitted witness statements that conflicted with what the victim said from the report, he had not committed a crime.
Proctor shot Glenn on May 5, 2015, after he reportedly yelled at patrons and pushed a bouncer outside a bar near the Venice boardwalk.
Proctor claimed that he opened fire on Glenn because he saw his hand on his partner’s holster and thought he was going for the gun, but that story was contradicted both by security video from the bar as well as statements from Proctor’s partner.
Beck initially put Proctor on paid leave, but the Times reports that at some point the department stopped paying Proctor, and his employment status with the department is unclear at this point.
The Los Angeles Police Commission ruled the shooting unjustified in April 2016, and in December the city agreed to settle lawsuits filed by Glenn’s family for $4 million.
A spokeswoman for Jackie Lacey’s office told the Times last week that the shooting case is still under review.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
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