L.A. County sheriff’s deputy charged with assaulting handcuffed shoplifting suspect

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was charged with assaulting a shoplifting suspect with a Taser stun gun nearly two years ago, prosecutors announced this week.

“Those who are sworn to protect our communities are required to make ethical decisions within the confines of the law,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón said in a news release. “But when they resort to using unreasonable and excessive force to exact revenge rather than in self-defense, their actions break the law that they are supposed to uphold. My office will hold them accountable for their actions.”

Deputy Hiraudi Lopez-Romero, 29, was responding on Dec. 14, 2020, to a shoplifting call in the area of the Blue Line train station in Compton, according to the news release. A male suspect resisted going into the police car and was pepper-sprayed.

The man started kicking inside the car as he was being taken to a hospital to be treated and broke one of the windows, officials said.

Lopez-Romero allegedly stopped the car, got out of the vehicle and used a Taser on the man, who was handcuffed, while he was in the car, officials said.

She was charged with a felony count of assault under color of authority and is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 31, according to the news release.

The case is being investigated by the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau.