Sean Coen

Gang Homicide Prosecutor

Sean Coen has been a deputy district attorney for 12 years. In that time he has tried 101 felony jury trials. He is currently a prosecutor in the Hardcore Gang Division. In that capacity, he was initially assigned to a grant-funded position through the Office of the United States Attorney entitled Anti-Gang Initiative. Via this initiative, Sean was entrusted to prosecute difficult murder and attempted murder cases which arose in the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles Police Department’s 77th Division. Sean Coen is now assigned to the Pomona Hardcore Gang Division where he also prosecutes complex murder and attempted murder cases committed by gang members. In his current assignment, he has received letters of commendation from the Head of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Gang Division as well as the El Monte Chief of Police. Sean has been assigned to the Hardcore Gang Division since 2007 and has prosecuted 17 murder cases, three of which have been special circumstance murders. He has always worked closely with various police agencies. Sean Coen is often called upon for assistance in the legal phases of police investigation.

In one particular case, People v. Maddox, et al. (BA344164), Sean was able to assist officers during multiple stages of the investigation. In that case, defendant Maddox, one of the leaders of a Los Angeles based gang known as the Hoover Crips, was overheard on several wire tap phone calls planning murders of rival gang members. In the midst of these calls, defendant Maddox directed another Hoover Crip gang member to shoot an undercover police officer. After two years of working with detectives from LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division, Sean Coen was able to use several recorded telephone calls from the 12,000 wire tap calls to secure convictions against defendant Maddox for Conspiracy to Commit Murder and Attempted Murder. Defendant Maddox was subsequently sentenced to life in state prison.

Aside from his experience prosecuting gang homicide cases, Sean Coen has a wealth of experience prosecuting other serious and violent felonies such as Rape, Robbery, Kidnapping, Child Molestation, and Torture.