Cover-Up by Police in Crash Death Alleged by Ex-Officer

A former Torrance police officer testified Monday that it was common knowledge within the Police Department that investigators covered up for an off-duty police sergeant, even though they believed that he was drunk and was to blame for a 1984 traffic accident that killed a San Pedro teen-ager.

Former officer Timothy Pappas also told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury that supervisors in the county’s third-largest police department condoned drunkenness and other abuses, including unjustified arrests of blacks who ventured into the mostly white city.

Wrongful-Death Suit

The testimony came near the end of the fourth week of trial of a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by John Rastello of San Pedro, whose son, Kelly, died in the 1984 collision with Sgt. Rollo Green. The lawsuit claims that Green was drunk when he turned illegally in front of the 19-year-old and that fellow officers covered up Green’s culpability as part of a pattern of concealing abuses by police.

Torrance officials say they investigated the case impartially and found that Rastello caused the accident by speeding.

Pappas’ testimony could be critical because he is the first witness from within the department to corroborate the coverup allegations.

In his brief appearance, Pappas pictured himself as a straight shooter who was ostracized by fellow officers and superiors for doing things by the book. But defense lawyers painted Pappas, 27, as a troubled cop with a motivation to get back at the Torrance Police Department: He had been punished five times for misconduct during his five-year career and was fired last December for allegedly covering up the facts of an incident in which he shot a man.

Pappas was not at the scene of the fatal crash but he told the jury that there was talk around the department afterward of a coverup.

“At the accident scene it was a known fact that Rollo Green was intoxicated,” Pappas testified, “and that they wanted to get him out of there as soon as they could. And that they wanted a Deuce Team (anti-drunk-driving team) there to back them up to say that he had been checked. And that they didn’t want a blood-alcohol test because they knew it would be over 0.10 (the legal standard for intoxication).”

In earlier testimony, Officer Daniel Metzger, a drunk-driving specialist, testifed that he checked Green on the night of the accident and found that, although the sergeant had been drinking, he was not drunk. Green was driven home, not arrested, and no blood-alcohol test was ever performed, according to previous witnesses.

Pappas testified that one of those at the crash scene, Officer Timothy Thornton, came to him and admitted that he lied in a sworn statement about the case taken by lawyers for John Rastello. Thornton told him that the drunk-driving team had been called to cover for Green and that Green, then an 18-year police veteran, was driven home for his own protection, Pappas told the jury.

Thornton and his lawyer could not be reached for comment. Thornton is the key witness against Pappas in a pending criminal case in which Pappas is accused of obstructing justice and falsely accusing another of a crime.

Pappas claimed that Torrance police officers knew they could stay out of trouble if they drank in Torrance.

“It was known that if you were in the city of Torrance you would be safe,” Pappas said. If officers were pulled over while driving, “it would be OK. At the most you would be driven home.”

Pappas also testified that training officers encouraged abuses, such as targeting blacks for arrest when they came to the city.

Plaintiff’s attorney, Browne Greene, tried to explore the issue of discrimination further, but Judge Abby Soven said it was beyond the scope of the trial.

Contacted later, Deputy Police Chief Jim Popp said, “We treat all people alike, depending on their actions, not their color.”

On cross-examination, lawyers for the city attacked Pappas’ credibility, pointing out that he was fired last year for misconduct.

Soven would not permit detailed questions about the incident, in which Pappas allegedly lied to justify his shooting in May, 1988, of an unarmed man, Patrick J. Coyle.