Torrance Fires Officer Named in Shooting Suit

The Torrance Police Department has fired Timothy Pappas, the officer accused in a lawsuit of an unprovoked shooting last year that left a construction worker partly paralyzed.

The dismissal became public this week when Pappas, a 4-year police veteran, appealed the action to the city’s Civil Service Commission. The commission will hold a hearing within two months, said Bill Ghio, Torrance’s civil service administrator.

Police Department administrators have declined to discuss the case, citing state laws that prohibit disclosure of disciplinary actions against police officers. They refused to say why Pappas was fired, and Pappas could not be reached for comment.

In a lawsuit filed last September in Torrance Superior Court, Torrance construction worker Patrick J. Coyle accused Pappas of shooting him in the face for no reason. The suit also named the city and Police Chief Donald Nash as defendants.

Attorneys for the city could not be reached for comment.

Coyle’s lawyer, Philip Gallagher, said Wednesday that the city has admitted negligence in the shooting. In exchange, he said, Coyle agreed to drop his demands for punitive damages and will instead pursue only damages for medical expenses and lost earnings, Gallagher said. The amount of those damages remains in dispute, he said.

Coyle also agreed to release Pappas, Nash and any other potential defendants from liability, Gallagher said.

According to the lawsuit, which is still pending, Coyle was riding his motorcycle the night of May 9 and was waiting for a friend near Western Avenue and 227th Street when Pappas sped toward him in a police car.

The lawsuit gives the following account:

Pappas skidded to a stop, drew his gun and ordered Coyle to put his hands in the air. Coyle raised his hands and remained on his motorcycle. Pappas cocked his .357 Magnum revolver. Pappas then screamed to Coyle: “Do you have any weapons?” and Coyle responded, “No, sir, I have a wrench in my pocket.” Without lowering his hands, Coyle pointed toward the wrench in his jacket pocket. Pappas then fired his revolver, with the bullet striking Coyle “square on his chin.”

The bullet traveled through Coyle’s head and lodged in the rear of his skull, the suit says.

Gallagher said Pappas may have mistaken Coyle for a friend of his. The lawyer said police were looking for Coyle’s friend, but he said he did not know why.

Coyle said in an interview Wednesday that the bullet is still lodged in his head. He said his right arm and left leg are partly paralyzed and that he has been unable to work since the incident.

“It turned my life upside down,” said Coyle, who is married and has a 2-year-old son. “I will never be the same again.”

But Coyle said he is relieved that Pappas has been fired and that the city has admitted liability. “Justice is being served,” he said.

Pattern Alleged

Coyle charged in the lawsuit that Police Chief Nash and the city failed to properly hire, train and supervise police officers. The lawsuit contends that the shooting is part of a pattern of excessive force that is condoned by the Torrance Police Department.

The Pappas case was one of three excessive-force allegations against the Police Department that received a considerable amount of publicity last year.

In a claim filed with the city in August, police officers were accused of severely beating a 27-year-old man. The claim was denied. In a lawsuit that is still pending, the parents of Timothy McCauley said their son was either hanged by police officers in his City Jail cell or driven to commit suicide because of the beating.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office ruled that McCauley killed himself and that he had not been beaten. But McCauley’s family hired a pathologist who said he found evidence of physical abuse.

In September, six young men filed a federal civil rights lawsuit charging that they were beaten by Torrance police who broke up a party in the north end of the city. The men, ranging in age from 20 to 26, released a videotape that showed police choking and beating one of them.

Torrance police administrators said the videotape is inconclusive. That case is also pending.

The district attorney’s office is reviewing those cases, as well as the Pappas incident, to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.