South Pasadena Officer Pleads Not Guilty in Hit-Run Crash

An attorney entered a not guilty plea Tuesday for a politically well-connected South Pasadena police officer accused of an off-duty hit-and-run crash that his colleagues allegedly covered up.

Scott D. Ziegler, 33, was not in Pasadena Municipal Court on Tuesday morning when attorney Darryl Mounger entered the plea on his behalf on one count of misdemeanor hit and run and one count of misleading a police officer. Ziegler was not required to attend the arraignment.

The charges stem from a year-old crash when a car owned by Ziegler’s father-in-law, former Mayor Ted Shaw, and driven by Ziegler hit a parked Honda then sped off, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Grosbard said.

Ziegler later told investigating officers that his car wasn’t running, but then admitted what happened and was fired, officials said. However, Ziegler was rehired a few weeks later by police Chief Thomas Mahoney, who was on vacation at the time of the crash. And although city officials say the rehiring was contingent on Ziegler paying the owner of the Honda for damages and Mahoney presenting the case to prosecutors, neither was done, they say.

Ziegler’s name also was omitted from a police report of the crash. After The Times reported on the crash last month, Ziegler’s name was added and Mahoney went on sick leave, then filed a disability claim, officials said. Soon afterward both a private investigative firm hired by the city and the district attorney’s office were probing the crash.

Charges were filed against Ziegler in late August, before the statute of limitations ran out Sept. 8. Grosbard said Ziegler faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of either charge.

Although a memo written by Mahoney describes the crash as a “drunken-driving incident,” Grosbard said there was insufficient evidence to charge Ziegler with drunken driving.

Mounger, who has defended former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Stacey Koon in the first Rodney G. King beating trial and Detective Mark Fuhrman, said he did not know enough about the case to comment. But city officials on Tuesday afternoon said Mounger had already filed a motion to examine all city personnel records.

The South Pasadena Police Department also has been racked by a scandal in which a woman had sex with two on-duty police officers. The woman has filed a claim against the city, and the owner of the Honda that Ziegler allegedly damaged has sued the department and city in federal court.