A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who remained employed a year after he was convicted of excessive force and four months after he lost his certification to work as a peace officer has been removed from his job.

Trevor Kirk’s separation Friday from the Sheriff’s Department came one day after activists at a Civilian Oversight Commission meeting questioned the deputy’s continued employment despite his decertification by the state in November.

California law requires all sworn peace officers to be certified by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Kirk’s certification is listed as “revoked” as a result of his conviction by a federal court jury in February 2025 in connection with a confrontation in which he threw a woman to the ground and pepper sprayed her.

Caree Harper, an attorney who represented the victim in the case, said Kirk should have been fired a year ago when the jury rendered its verdict.

“I’m sure our taxpayer dollars are paying for it,” she said. “There was no justification for what occurred and a jury found that.”

Kirk was relieved of duty without pay in July 2023 after a video spread on social media showing his confrontation with the woman outside a supermarket in Lancaster.

The Sheriff’s Department on Friday declined to answer questions about Kirk beyond confirming his separation. The timing of his departure could not be discussed due to confidentiality laws, the department said.

Kirk’s attorney, Tom Yu, could not be reached for comment.

In an email, Nick Wilson, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Professional Association, said Kirk is actively appealing his case, and his legal team submitted a formal request for a presidential pardon in July.

“While legal communications are confidential, we understand the pardon application is in the approval process, and we are confident it will receive fair consideration,” Wilson said.

In a written statement, the LASPA described the prosecution as “wrongful and politically charged.”

“This isn’t just about one deputy — it’s an assault on every law enforcement officer who puts their life on the line daily,” said Cesar Romero, the president of LASPA. “We will not back down. Trevor has our full support, and we will fight alongside him and his loved ones until justice is restored.”

A federal grand jury indicted Kirk in September 2024 for “deprivation of rights under color of law” — a civil rights violation — for his use of force against the woman in Lancaster.

Kirk and another deputy were responding to a reported robbery involving a male and female suspect. The deputies detained a man matching the first suspect’s description, while a woman fitting the second suspect’s description recorded with her phone.

Federal prosecutors under the Biden administration argued that Kirk approached the woman and tried to grab her phone without first issuing any commands. When she pulled away, he slammed her to the ground, put his knee on her shoulder, then her neck and threatened to punch her if she did not “stop.”

Kirk then pepper sprayed her twice in the face without warning, footage showed. The indictment alleged he later misleadingly reported she had assaulted him and posed a threat to his physical safety.

Jurors found Kirk guilty on the felony charge and he initially faced up to 10 years in federal prison. But when the U.S. attorney prosecuting the case changed under President Donald Trump, Kirk received a post-conviction plea deal that dropped his charge to a misdemeanor and the new prosecutors instead requested a sentence of one year of probation.

Several federal prosecutors resigned over that decision, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, who had previously described the video as “disturbing,” wrote a letter in Kirk’s support in which he blamed the use of force on training failures within the Lancaster sheriff’s station and asked the judge to consider probation for Kirk due to the “totality of the circumstances.”

In 2023, sheriff’s stations in the Antelope Valley were out of compliance with an 8-year-old settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice meant to resolve prior findings of racial bias and unconstitutional uses of force. The department’s use-of-force policy did not “provide enough emphasis and instruction on de-escalation practices,” according to the letter.

As Kirk’s case progressed, Luna faced significant pushback from within the department. One sign put up by deputies at the time called for others to turn in their pepper spray unless “you want to be convicted too” and described Kirk as being “sacrificed on the altar of social justice.”

Deputies from more than 20 sheriff’s stations boycotted an annual foot race from Baker to Las Vegas in support of Kirk, according to CBS News. In response, the Sheriff’s Department issued a statement acknowledging the frustration and denying that anyone within the department had referred the case to federal investigators. An older statement claimed the department started an internal criminal investigation and then turned it over to the FBI.

Harper said Luna caved to the pressure and his letter served as a “life raft” for Kirk.

“You can’t train people to be human and to treat others like humans,” she said.

Wilson, the LASPA spokesperson, said Kirk’s case has become “symbolic of deeper leadership failures and a department in crisis.”

“This is not just about Trevor Kirk, but it starts with him,” he said. “If systemic training deficiencies were acknowledged, accountability cannot stop with one deputy.”

U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson accepted the misdemeanor plea deal, but then sentenced Kirk to four months in prison after concluding that probation did not “sufficiently reflect defendant’s breach of duty and the manner in which he breached that duty.”

The U.S. attorney’s office, in response, tried to dismiss its charge against Kirk in an effort to keep him out of prison. The judge, calling it a “Hail Mary,” rejected that attempt, too.

Concerns about Kirk’s continued employment and potential transfer to a new role prompted the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission to raise the issue at its meeting Thursday.

Chair Hans Johnson said the department does not currently prohibit a decertified officer from shifting to a nonsworn role.

Commissioners unanimously voted to work with the LASD’s Office of Constitutional Policing to develop a clear policy on the decertification and termination of sheriff’s deputies as a result.