Ex-Torrance Police Officer Fined, Placed on Probation in Cover-Up

A former Torrance police officer was sentenced Tuesday to serve a year of unsupervised probation and pay $1,000 for his role in the cover-up of circumstances surrounding a 1988 police shooting.

Mark Holden, 31, who pleaded no contest in June to a single misdemeanor count of filing a false police report, was not present in court as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel issued the sentence.

Revel, who said she could have sentenced Holden to a year in the county jail, noted that Holden “has lost his job and paid some price for a serious mistake.”

“The court probably will never know for sure what happened on the night of this shooting . . . but I am satisfied that this (sentence) is equitable,” she said.

Holden and two colleagues--Timothy Thornton and Timothy Pappas--initially told investigators that Pappas shot motorcyclist Patrick Coyle in the face during a May, 1988, traffic stop when Coyle reached suddenly for a metal wrench in his waistband.

Coyle, who was partially paralyzed by the single bullet, has filed suit against the city for his injuries.

The three officers wrote in their report that Coyle was uncooperative during the stop and did not follow orders to keep his hands on his head.

Investigators closed the case shortly after the shooting, but reopened it several months later when Thornton told his superiors that Pappas shot Coyle accidentally, shortly after Coyle had placed the wrench on the sidewalk.

All three officers were dismissed from the force, and officials characterized Holden as the officer who had orchestrated the cover-up to protect Pappas.

But defense attorney Scott Furstman said Holden, who arrived on the scene after Pappas had ordered Coyle to put the wrench down, never knew that the wrench already was on the ground when Coyle was shot.

“Mark Holden has never changed his position that he assumed Mr. Coyle was reaching for a weapon,” Furstman said after the sentencing. “Mr. Pappas and Mr. Thornton never told him any differently.”

Furstman said Holden decided to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charge to bring an end to the emotionally draining case.

Pappas pleaded no contest late last year to a misdemeanor count of filing a false report and 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 against the other two officers.