A Los Angeles County judge dismissed a murder indictment against former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor over the 2015 shooting death of unarmed homeless man Brendon Glenn, saying prosecutors did not meet the legal standards for a murder charge or present require
On a Friday morning that arrived with years of legal waiting behind it, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen delivered a ruling that ended the latest push to convict former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor of murder.
Coen dismissed a murder indictment tied to Proctor’s 2015 killing of Brendon Glenn during an attempted arrest in Venice Beach. Coen said prosecutors failed to meet the standards required for a murder charge and failed to present exculpatory evidence to the 2024 grand jury that indicted Proctor.
“It cannot be said in any shape or form that the defendant had any malice,” Coen said in court.
After the ruling was finalized, Proctor nodded as Coen spoke and then enveloped his attorney, Tom Yu, in a bear hug. Outside the courtroom, Proctor said he planned to “pick up the pieces” of his life after what he framed as a decade-plus legal saga.
The dismissal was granted despite opposition from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. A spokesman for the agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Proctor. 60. was on patrol with his partner. Jonathan Kawahara. when he responded to calls about Glenn and his dog causing a disturbance in Venice Beach in May 2015. Authorities previously said Glenn had just been thrown out of a bar and got into an argument with Proctor over the behavior of his dog. Prosecutors’ case described the escalation this way: Proctor threatened to shoot the animal. and Glenn responded with several racial slurs at Proctor; both men are Black.
Glenn then walked toward another bar, where he got into an argument with a bouncer who denied him entry. When officers moved to arrest Glenn, a struggle ensued and Proctor shot the 29-year-old twice in the back, killing him.
Through his attorneys, Proctor has maintained that he believed Glenn was reaching for his partner’s gun. But the video evidence from the scene does not show Glenn reaching for the pistol. Kawahara told investigators he did not believe Glenn was going for his gun at the time of the shooting.
The ruling fits into a case that has already moved through years of changing decisions about whether and how to charge Proctor. Ex-Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey declined to file charges in 2018, even after former Police Chief Charlie Beck publicly called on her to charge manslaughter.
When George Gascón was elected in 2020 on a police accountability platform. he brought in special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton to re-examine a number of Lacey’s decisions in fatal police shootings. including the Proctor case. Middleton later secured a murder indictment in late 2024 as Gascón’s tenure was ending.
Yu argued that the legal timing and charging choices left the case structurally out of reach for some options. The statute of limitations on manslaughter—the charge most police officials and experts believed was appropriate—had long expired by then.
“A prosecutor’s job is not to seek an indictment, it’s to seek justice,” Yu said Friday.
Yu also said he believed Proctor’s use of force was legally justified. “Do I think it’s justified? I think it’s completely justified. We sitting in the courtroom has no business to judge what Proctor and Kawahara were thinking that night,” he said.
Proctor’s legal fight did not remain confined to the courtroom. He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents last October as he attempted to board an international flight. apparently unaware there was a warrant out for his arrest. The Times previously reported that current Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman had let the case languish for nearly his entire first year in office.
The judge’s dismissal Friday closed this chapter of the criminal case. but it didn’t soften the stark facts at the center of it: Proctor and Kawahara responded to a Venice Beach disturbance in May 2015. a struggle followed. Proctor shot Glenn twice in the back. and Glenn died. The question of whether murder charges could be sustained—under the standards Coen said prosecutors did not meet—was the central line Coen drew on the record as he ruled the case out.
Clifford Proctor Brendon Glenn Venice Beach LAPD murder indictment dismissed Ronald S. Coen Tom Yu Los Angeles County DA George Gascón Jackie Lacey Lawrence Middleton