Plea Deal Ends Trial in Shooting of Officer

The trial of a mentally ill Simi Valley man charged with attempted murder of a police officer ended with a plea bargain and a Christmas gift.

Mark Pedersen, 34, would have faced life imprisonment if a jury had convicted him of the attempted murder charge. Instead, he pleaded guilty on Monday to assault on a police officer, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Pedersen, diagnosed with schizophrenia a decade ago, will also be allowed to go home on Christmas Day.

He has been in jail since a confrontation with police last December in which he barricaded himself in his room after not taking his medicine. Police said they forced open the door because they feared for his safety. When Pedersen allegedly lunged forward with a pocketknife, one officer shot him twice in the chest. Another officer was accidentally hit in the thigh by a bullet and now performs light office work.

The district attorney charged Pedersen with attempted murder of a police officer but consented to the reduced charges on Monday. Pedersen will be sentenced Jan. 15.

“I do believe that this was a very serious crime,” said Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams. “I still have an officer that has not fully recovered from his injuries, so I would certainly hope that there would be justice done in the sentencing.”

Pedersen’s lawyer, Jenny Scovis, hopes for probation with appropriate monitoring and thinks that the Christmas release is a good sign: “[Judge] Charles Campbell said that this is a trial run to see how he behaves.”

The Rev. George Luthringer, a pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Simi Valley, has agreed to make sure that Pedersen takes his dosage of medicine while home for Christmas.

“The last thing in the world that Mark wants is to return to confinement,” Luthringer said. “He understands that he must take [his medicine] even though it sometimes produces side effects.”