As expected, felony charges filed against a Los Angeles Police Department officer who secretly recorded his colleagues making racist, sexist and homophobic comments were reduced to misdemeanors Thursday, and the officer was placed in a diversion program that will allow him to avoid prison time.
Under the diversion program, the 16 eavesdropping charges against Daniel Flores, 43, will be dismissed on Aug. 20, 2027, assuming he does not commit any other offenses in the next year.
District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Wednesday that his office would reduced the charges to misdemeanors, saying he did not want the case to discourage other potential whistleblowers from coming forward to report suspected wrongdoing.
Flores was originally 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.
At a news conference Wednesday, Hochman said a felony conviction could have led to state prison time for Flores, but the reduction to misdemeanors and placement in the diversion program will allow Flores to avoid prison time if he does not commit any other crimes.
“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 said 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 “bitches 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 ass bitch,” “the little gay one” and “little bitches.” 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.