Local News in Brief : Choking Charge Dropped

A charge that the original prosecutor in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter case tried to choke his wife has been dismissed as part of plea bargain with the city attorney’s office.

In exchange for the dismissal Tuesday, former Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Kesselman agreed to a new condition of the two years’ probation he was placed on for disturbing the peace in a separate case.

Kesselman, 45, agreed to obey an order stemming from his ongoing divorce proceedings that he not physically assault his wife.

In the other case, Kesselman had been charged with misdemeanor lewd conduct for allegedly having sex with a prostitute in his parked car Oct. 14. The district attorney’s office, citing his lewd conduct arrest, fired him in December, an action that Kesselman is appealing before the county Civil Service Commission.

Kesselman was the first prosecutor in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter case against film director John Landis and four associates, but he was taken off the case in late 1985. All five defendants eventually were acquitted.