Former School Officer Accused in More Thefts

A former Pasadena Unified School District police officer, recently arrested after a hidden video camera allegedly taped him burglarizing a high school while on duty, has been charged with breaking into three schools.

Michael Babb, 38, is charged with four counts of felony burglary and faces as much as six years in state prison if he is convicted.

Babb is accused of four break-ins: at Washington Middle School between late February and mid-March 1999; Roosevelt Elementary School between Jan. 26 and Jan. 27; and Pasadena High School between Dec. 17, 1999, and Jan. 3, 2000, and again on May 7.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Krag said Babb is expected to surrender to authorities Monday for arraignment in Pasadena Superior Court. Babb’s attorney declined to comment Friday.

Babb was arrested last month after authorities reviewed a May 7 videotape that authorities said showed him, in uniform, rifling through desks, prying open a door and attempting to crack the safe shortly before 6 a.m. at Pasadena High School.

“His 9-millimeter Beretta is clearly visible,” said Krag, who has reviewed the tape. Thanks to that image, the prosecutor said, Babb faces a special allegation of carrying a firearm in the commission of a crime.

A school vice principal had set up the video camera in the business office after a burglary there two days before. Officials said the office is off-limits to campus police. Babb was fired a few hours after his May 9 arrest.

Since Babb’s hiring in November 1998, there have been more than 50 burglaries in the Pasadena public schools. That crime wave escalated despite increased school police patrols.

“They couldn’t figure out why they were having all these burglaries until now,” Krag said.

After his arrest, Babb was shown a color print of a video frame that allegedly captured him in the act at Pasadena High, prosecutors say. Babb agreed to an interview, they say, and directed police to property matching the description of that stolen from district offices.

“Additional evidence was recovered from his home and a storage locker,” Krag said. “He made statements implicating himself in burglaries at Washington, Roosevelt and another at Pasadena High.”

Krag said a computer allegedly stolen from Washington Middle School was recovered from a storage locker used by Babb. The Roosevelt burglary, he added, involved $21 taken from an individual’s desk.

According to authorities, Babb allegedly had master keys to enter buildings and used a screwdriver to pry open interior doors to areas to which he did not have access.