Defense Motion Delays Security Chief’s Hearing

A judge has delayed an administrative court hearing expected to determine whether Charles Parcell, the Pasadena schools security chief, can be fired for alleged misuse of a district cellular telephone, misappropriation of a computer and sexual harassment.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge stopped the hearing from proceeding as scheduled Tuesday, after Parcell’s attorney, James Farley, filed a writ.

Farley said the writ, which will be heard March 2, asks that Parcell be judged as a peace officer and not as a certificated teacher.

The Pasadena Unified School District views Parcell, former principal of Blair High School, as a teacher with administrative responsibility for security.

Those close to the case said the writ is an attempt to disqualify from evidence statements Parcell made to police about the computer. A peace officer must answer police questions about his conduct. However, such statements may not be used in court.

Parcell faces a pretrial hearing Friday in Pasadena Municipal Court on a charge of filing a false police report about the computer. Authorities allege that he removed an $1,800 computer from the district’s special-education department, then hid it and filed a police report declaring it stolen after employees, who went to report it missing, saw it in the security office.

The computer was recovered from in a security office trash sack.