Police Officer Pleads No Contest in Shooting Accident Cover-Up

A former Torrance police officer who faced felony charges for allegedly covering up the accidental shooting of a man by another officer pleaded no contest Tuesday to a misdemeanor count in the case.

Two felony charges were dropped against Mark Holden, 31, in return for his no-contest plea to one misdemeanor count of obstructing a police officer in the execution of his duties, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Chris Darden.

Holden, faces up to one year in County Jail and a $1,000 fine when he appears for sentencing on July 24 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Darden said. A trial on the felony counts had been scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Holden and two colleagues--Timothy Thornton and Timothy Pappas--were fired in December, 1988, after a Police Department investigation into the shooting of construction worker Patrick Coyle on May 9, 1988. Coyle, who had been stopped for questioning as he rode his motorcycle, was partially paralyzed by his wound.

The three officers wrote in their report that Coyle was uncooperative after he was stopped and did not follow orders to keep his hands on his head. The investigation into the shooting initially was closed shortly after the incident when the three officers told investigators that Coyle was shot as he made a sudden motion toward a wrench tucked into his waistband.

Investigators reopened the case several months later when Thornton told his superiors that Pappas fired the shot into Coyle’s face accidentally--several moments after Coyle had placed the wrench on the sidewalk.

Holden’s lawyer, Scott Furstman, said that his client was not aware that the wrench already was on the ground when Coyle was shot.

“Mr. Holden enters this no-contest plea without any admission of guilt or wrongdoing,” Furstman said. “(We) still assert his innocence. . . Mr. Holden assumed that (Coyle) was reaching for a weapon. Neither Pappas nor Thornton ever took any steps to correct Mr. Holden’s assumption.”

Furstman said Holden, whose dismissal from the Police Department was upheld by the Torrance City Council last month, decided to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charge “to close this chapter in his life.”

Pappas pleaded no contest late last year to the same misdemeanor charge. He was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and serve one year on summary probation. Thornton was granted immunity in return for his agreement to testify.

Coyle has a lawsuit pending against the city. His attorney has said that settlement negotiations are continuing.