LOS ANGELES, CA — A former Los Angeles Police Department officer has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder after being indicted a second time in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man in Venice more than a decade ago.
Clifford Proctor, 61, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the May 5, 2015, killing of 29-year-old Brendon Glenn, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
A grand jury returned the indictment Aug. 18, and it was unsealed this week. Proctor is due back in court Friday for a pretrial hearing at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.
If convicted, he faces up to life in state prison.
The case stems from an encounter near the Venice Beach Boardwalk, where police responded after Glenn had been kicked out of a bar and became involved in a dispute with others, prosecutors said.
As officers tried to subdue and arrest Glenn, Proctor shot him, according to prosecutors.
Proctor said after the shooting that he believed Glenn was reaching for his partner's gun. LAPD investigators determined Glenn was on his stomach when Proctor stepped back and fired twice, striking him in the back.
Prosecutors contend Glenn was unarmed and did not pose a serious threat to the officers. They also claim Proctor had become angry and frustrated during the encounter, threatened to shoot Glenn's dog and later asked a witness to support a false account of the shooting.
Proctor's partner said he did not believe Glenn posed a deadly threat before the shooting, according to the District Attorney's Office.
"While a judge earlier this summer granted a defense motion to dismiss a prior indictment, we strongly believe there is more than sufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant maliciously shot and killed Brendon Glenn," District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement.
The prosecution marks the latest turn in a case that has been reviewed under three Los Angeles County district attorneys.
In 2018, then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey declined to charge Proctor after her office concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting was unlawful. That review included surveillance footage, witness statements, DNA evidence and an outside use-of-force expert.
The Los Angeles Police Commission had reached a different conclusion two years earlier, finding the shooting unjustified. Then-LAPD Chief Charlie Beck also recommended criminal charges.
After George Gascón became district attorney, he appointed special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton to re-examine the case. A grand jury indicted Proctor on second-degree murder in September 2024.
That indictment was dismissed in June after Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen found that Middleton had failed to present sufficient evidence of malice and legally required exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.
Hochman later brought in special prosecutor Michael Gennaco, a police use-of-force expert, to review the case and present it to a new grand jury.
Proctor's attorney has maintained that the shooting was justified.
The city of Los Angeles previously paid $4 million to settle wrongful-death lawsuits filed by Glenn's relatives.
V. James DeSimone, an attorney for Glenn's family, said the family remains hopeful Proctor will ultimately be convicted.
"Our philosophy is that justice delayed is still justice," DeSimone said.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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