County / IN BRIEF : LOS ANGELES : Officers in Gunplay Case Are Charged

The district attorney’s office--rejecting a contention by two Los Angeles police officers that they were not firing at a highway patrolman during a freeway shooting incident last month--filed felony charges against them on Wednesday.

Officers Ted S. Teyechea and Michael V. Herrera are scheduled for arraignment today on two counts each of assaulting a peace officer and shooting from a moving pickup truck at Scott Wall, a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer who was parked on an on-ramp shoulder issuing a traffic ticket. Wall was not injured.

Teyechea and Herrera also were charged with firing with gross negligence.

If convicted on all counts, the officers face maximum sentences of about 14 years. They are free on $5,000 bail apiece and have been ordered to stay at home during their regular duty hours, said Lt. John Dunkin, a spokesman for the LAPD.

The LAPD is conducting an administrative investigation and may “in the next few days” relieve them of duty without pay, Dunkin said.

Neither Herrera nor his lawyer could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Barry Levin, who represents Teyechea, said his client has been “grossly overcharged” in an attempt by prosecutors to get him to plead guilty to lesser offenses. “That is not going to happen,” Levin said.

The shooting occurred Feb. 9 near an on-ramp at the intersections of the Harbor and Redondo Beach freeways. The two LAPD officers had left their jobs and gone on a drinking spree, authorities say. Friends have said Herrera and Teyechea were shooting at street signs.