News Releases

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Hiraudi Lopez-Romero has been charged with unlawfully using a Taser stun gun on someone who had been detained for shoplifting in Compton two years ago.

“Those who are sworn to protect our communities are required to make ethical decisions within the confines of the law,” District Attorney Gascón said. “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.”

Lopez-Romero (dob 12/4/92) was charged in case BA510923 with one felony count of assault under color of authority. She is scheduled to be arraigned January 31 in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

The case was filed for warrant yesterday.

On December 14, 2020, Lopez-Romero responded to a possible shoplifting call near the Blue Line train station in Compton. A man was detained and when he allegedly resisted going into a deputy’s car, he was pepper-sprayed.

The man, who was handcuffed, was kicking inside the vehicle as he was being transported to a hospital to be treated, decontaminated and cleared for booking. While en route to the hospital, he shattered one of the windows with his feet.

The defendant is accused of stopping and exiting the vehicle, and then using a Taser on the handcuffed man while he was detained in the back seat of the vehicle.

The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau.