Judges rule: Charges reinstated for Los Angeles officers accused of lying in 2018 arrest

Los Angeles, California – On Friday, a group of judges from a higher court in California decided to bring back charges against two police officers from Los Angeles County. These officers were previously accused of not telling the truth about an arrest they made in 2018, in East Los Angeles.

The decision was explained in a document that was 20 pages long. It involved officers Woodrow Kim and Jonathan Miramontes. The judges believed there was enough reason to think that both of them had indeed lied in their reports.

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Initially, a judge named Ronald S. Coen had thrown out the charges against Kim and Miramontes in August 2022 because he thought there wasn’t enough proof. But, when the Los Angeles County Prosecutor’s Office wanted the charges to be brought back, another judge, Norman Shapiro, said no in September 2022. Shapiro has retired since then.

The Prosecutor’s Office didn’t give up and decided to challenge Shapiro’s decision. Tom Yu, the lawyer for Miramontes, mentioned he was not happy with the new decision. He is thinking about what steps to take next, including possibly trying to get the serious charge changed to a less serious one.

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Back in August 2021, Kim and Miramontes were accused of making up a story in their report. Additionally, Kim faced a more severe charge of assaulting someone, which was dropped in August 2022, and the prosecutors didn’t try to challenge that decision.

The case was about an incident where Kim supposedly opened a car door so hard that it hit a man and made him fall to the ground. This happened after a car chase that ended in a park on September 19, 2018. The prosecutors said that the video footage showed the car door hitting the man hard enough to knock him down. They argued that Kim’s report claiming the man was still standing was not true. They also found issues with what Miramontes wrote in his report.

At the time they were called to the scene, Kim and Miramontes were investigating a report of someone in a black BMW threatening another driver with a gun.

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According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Miramontes is still working, while Kim has been suspended from duty.