Local News in Brief : Fired Prosecutor Appeals

A former prosecutor in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter case has appealed his firing to the county Civil Service Commission, saying he was dismissed because he was unwilling to “compromise” his ethics in the case.

Deputy Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gary Kesselman was fired earlier this month, following his Oct. 14 lewd conduct arrest for allegedly having sex with a prostitute.

But Kesselman contends that he really was fired because he fell out of favor with his superiors when he refused to support the alleged perjured testimony of a key prosecution witness in the “Twilight Zone” trial. By the time the case came to trial last year, Kesselman had been taken off the case and replaced with another prosecutor.

“I was discriminated against because of my unwillingness and refusal to comply with the wishes of those in the district attorney’s office who sought to compromise my professional ethics and integrity in the ‘Twilight Zone’ case and other non-merit factors,” Kesselman wrote in his appeal, filed last Thursday with the Civil Service Commission.