Chief Distances LAPD From Officers Accused in Rampage

Two police officers accused of firing at a California Highway Patrol officer during an off-duty shooting rampage bailed out of jail early Thursday as their superiors grappled with the possible long-term fallout for the Los Angeles Police Department.

“These men are charged with some of the most heinous criminal actions I have ever heard,” Police Chief Willie L. Williams said at a news conference carried live by local television stations. The chief said the LAPD is cooperating “110%” with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigation of the shooting, which occurred in sheriff’s territory near the Harbor Freeway in the South Bay.

But Williams took pains to distance the rest of the department from the embarrassing spectacle. Mentioning two earlier public relations disasters--the police beating of Rodney G. King and the department’s response to the 1992 riots--Williams said: “It is time to stop painting this organization with that broad brush. . . . Let’s take this incident as it was.”

Mayor Richard Riordan, commenting briefly on the incident at an unrelated news conference, said: “As reported, it’s reprehensible behavior.”

As authorities sifted through the evidence in the case, they concluded that the officers did not, as originally suspected, fire at a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus. Nevertheless, both officers, Michael V. Herrera and Ted S. Teyechea, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, a charge that could carry a prison sentence and almost certainly will end their law enforcement careers if they are found responsible.

“They’re history,” one police source said. “They might as well just resign and get it over with.”

Although the Sheriff’s Department has yet to release official information regarding the officers’ blood-alcohol level, sources say one officer refused to be tested and the other recorded a level of 0.14%, nearly twice the California legal driving limit of 0.08%.

Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Martin said that Teyechea appears to have initiated the shooting rampage, allegedly leaning out of the truck’s passenger window and firing five rounds in the direction of the CHP officer. As the officer radioed for help, Herrera, who was driving, fired four more shots from the driver’s side as Teyechea continued to shoot, Martin said.

Scrambling to contain the damage caused by the incident, Los Angeles police officers who work with the pair drafted a letter to the Highway Patrol expressing regret over the incident and hope that the agencies can continue to cooperate. Williams also is writing a letter, which aides said he expects to mail today.

Herrera and Teyechea are LAPD veterans--Herrera joined the force in 1984, Teyechea the next year--and both worked in the 77th Street area, one of the most challenging in the city for a police officer.

Danny L. Staggs, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said they have outstanding reputations. Their boss, Capt. Larry R. Goebel, called them “hard-working officers who have not had any problems that would in any way indicate they would do something like this.”

Herrera has never been punished by an LAPD board of rights, the department’s chief disciplinary body. Teyechea, however, was given a 10-day suspension in 1989 for striking a prisoner and using improper language.

The two are “not problem children, but not outstanding, either,” one colleague said. An officer who once supervised them said they are “average cops, not the kind of guys who stand out at anything.”

Of the two, officers generally spoke more highly of Herrera, a second-generation officer whose father is an LAPD detective. The younger Herrera, they said, is a quiet, mostly respected officer well-liked by many of his colleagues.

Herrera and Teyechea were not at work Thursday, and Goebel said the two would be reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation. That reassignment will keep them out of the field while the Sheriff’s Department conducts its criminal investigation and the LAPD pursues administrative charges.

Herrera and Teyechea were bailed out of jail about 1 a.m. Thursday. But the Police Protective League, which generally aids officers, did not post the bond or send a lawyer to meet with them.

“They were on their own,” said Staggs, president of the league. “We will give them the courtesy of a one-hour legal consultation. That’s something we give every member. But that’s all we’ll do.”

David Davies, administrator for the county probation department’s pretrial services division, said an on-duty bail commissioner approved a late night request from the patrolmen to lower their $25,000 bail to $5,000. Thousands of suspects ask for similar reductions; about 17% of such requests were granted last year. Davies said he did not know why Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Stanley Genser lowered the bail for the officers.

“But I would assume he made the decision based on their community and family ties, their lack of a criminal record, their substantial employment record and the belief that they were good candidates to return and make their court appearances and who posed no risk for criminal activity while they were out of custody,” Davies said.

After making bail, the two officers returned home, Teyechea to his residence in Monterey Park, Herrera to his house in West Covina. Neither could be reached for comment.

The bail reduction prompted some speculation that the officers were receiving special treatment, but Williams, in a rare display of anger, vehemently denied any such suggestion.

“There is no special treatment. I’m the chief of police, take me at my word,” Williams said. “We do not request nor do we condone nor would we accept special treatment.”

According to colleagues, Herrera and Teyechea went out drinking at the end of their shift, which ended Wednesday morning. The two reportedly visited at least two bars that are popular with police officers, the Shortstop on Sunset Boulevard and the Zebra Room in Torrance.

It was not until about 2 p.m., about six hours after the two officers had gotten off work, that they allegedly fired at a CHP officer who had stopped to write a ticket near the 190th Street on-ramp to the northbound Harbor Freeway. Authorities would not identify the CHP officer.

As Herrera and Teyechea passed, the CHP officer allegedly heard shots and turned to see the pickup truck. Although sheriff’s officials said the CHP officer did not see Herrera and Teyechea fire at him, he concluded that they had and immediately set off after them on his motorcycle.

The officers were arrested a few minutes later after being hung up in traffic on Vermont Avenue in Gardena. A sheriff’s spokesman said that as they surrendered at gunpoint to the CHP officer, Herrera identified himself as a police officer. The arresting officers found two handguns and a number of spent shell casings in the truck, officials said.

Initial reports indicated that the officers also had fired at an MTA bus, but investigators now say that does not appear to be the case. The MTA dispatched messages to its bus drivers Thursday asking them to report if any of them had been involved in the incident. Spokesman Jim Smart said that none had come forward.

The officers are likely to be arraigned March 3, and authorities said that additional charges could be added before that time.

News of the incident rocked police administrators, police union leaders and other LAPD supporters--all of whom had been basking in the accolades that the department received for its response to last month’s earthquake.

Most police officials declined to comment about the incident in detail, but several said they were concerned about the possible effect it would have on the department’s standing with the public and with other police agencies.

Leaders of the Police Protective League were in a board meeting Wednesday evening when they got word of the incident. Directors, who are lobbying the city to give officers a raise, were dismayed.

“It’s tragic, and unfortunately casts a shadow over the whole department,” Staggs said. “It’s especially sad that this comes right after the earthquake, when our officers did such a great job.”

City Councilwoman Laura Chick, a member of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said the incident and its aftermath had created “an exceptionally trying time for those of us who care about rebuilding the morale of the Los Angeles Police Department.”

She added, however: “It is very important that in our rush for quick justice in this case, we do not make the entire Los Angeles Police Department the suspect or scapegoat. The police cannot operate effectively in any community without citizen support.”

Times staff writers David Ferrell and Nora Zamichow contributed to this report.