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LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A Los Angeles police officer who faced time in prison for secretly recording colleagues making racist, sexist and homophobic comments will now likely avoid a jail cell.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced on Wednesday that he will reduce criminal charges against a LAPD officer who secretly recorded his colleagues from felonies to misdemeanors.
Daniel Flores, 43, had been charged with 16 felony counts of eavesdropping or recording confidential communications. Flores’ attorney and some community activists quickly criticized the case when it was filed earlier this year, saying Flores was being punished for exposing racism within the LAPD.
SEE ALSO: Mayor Bass criticizes DA for charging LAPD officer accused of recording co-workers’ racist comments
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized prosecutors for criminally charging an LAPD officer accused of illegally recording the conversations of colleagues who allegedly made racist, sexist and homophobic comments.
Hochman said once the charges are reduced to misdemeanors, Flores’ attorney will likely ask for the officer to be placed into a court diversion program that could result in the charges being dismissed after a year if Flores does not commit any other offenses. Flores had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning, but that hearing was postponed until Thursday, when the charges could be formally reduced.
Hochman said a felony conviction could have led to state prison time for Flores, and he did not want the case to deter other potential whistleblowers from coming forward due to fear of criminal prosecution.
“Our office works every single day with individuals who are whistleblowers who have brought wrongdoing forward through legitimate means,” Hochman said. “… We count on witnesses coming forward, showing the bravery to actually expose the criminal conduct, sometimes at a sacrifice to their own potential safety, and we make sure that safety is respected and protected at each point in the process.”
The district attorney said the 16 charges against Flores pertained to each of the 16 officers who were recorded, noting that Flores made 122 recordings overall, and could have faced charges for each of those recordings. He also said all 16 of the officers recorded were subjected to internal LAPD disciplinary proceedings, with penalties ranging from reprimand to suspension or termination.
While his office still believes Flores violated the law, Hochman said he heard the reaction from the community about the effect filing felony charges might have on people deciding whether to come forward with allegations of wrongdoing.
“In fact, the response back in many different quarters, whether it was from community members, elected officials, various individuals, was that this type of prosecution, because we used felony charges that could result in state prison, would actually chill legitimate whistleblowers who were potentially thinking of coming forward, because they would be worried about being criminally prosecuted from the District Attorney’s Office,” he said. “And the distinction that we were making — that whistleblowers, if they engage in lawful means to gather their evidence, would never be prosecuted — was being somewhat lost in the media and as we went out through the general community.”
Prosecutors allege that Flores, who was assigned to the LAPD’s Recruitment and Employment Division, made the recordings of his colleagues in 2024, and that they were made “without the permission of those who were recorded.” He could have faced up to 13 years in prison if convicted of the felony charges.
Flores claimed in a hostile-workplace lawsuit he filed against the city in June that he made the recordings in what he believed was part of a “lawful investigation as a police officer” into department members using racist, sexist and homophobic slurs.
Flores’ attorney, Alan Jackson, was openly critical of the case from the start.
“The prosecution of this case, the prosecution of my client, Daniel Flores, sends a really, really scary message,” he told reporters after Flores’ arraignment. “And that message is if you expose racism and sexism and bigotry and misogyny and bias within the walls of the LAPD, then you’re going to be… the one exposed to potential state prison because of a prosecution like this.”
The defense attorney said there has been widespread countywide, statewide and even national criticism of the decision by the District Attorney’s Office to file the case against Flores, whom he said “did exactly that which we would expect him to do as an officer of the law, as a peace officer.”
In his lawsuit filed in June against the city, Flores contended that he was subjected to a hostile workplace beginning in about late 2021 when a new supervisor took over the LAPD’s recruitment division and “repeatedly made derogatory statements and fostered an environment in which other employees were encouraged to do the same.”
The lawsuit claims his co-workers made comments calling women “b—— who cannot be trusted.” Some co-workers also derided Asians and Hispanics, with Flores’ supervisor claiming former Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela died because “he ate too many tacos,” the suit states.
The suit also contends co-workers made derogatory statements about sexual orientation, using references such as “gay a– b—-,” “the little gay one” and “little b——.” Other co-workers made various derogatory statements against Black people, including a comment that they “enjoy watermelon between basketball.”
According to the lawsuit, Flores submitted his complaints about his co-workers to LAPD Internal Affairs and the Los Angeles Police Commission in January 2025.
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