Ex-Schools Officer Surrenders in Campus Break-Ins

A former Pasadena schools police officer, allegedly caught on a hidden camera committing an inside break-in while on duty, surrendered to authorities Monday and was released on $5,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a series of campus burglaries.

Michael Babb, 38, of Pomona was arraigned on four felony counts for allegedly burglarizing three school sites between January 1999 and his arrest last month. He could receive up to six years in prison if convicted.

Babb also faces a special allegation that he carried a handgun--his department-issued 9-millimeter Beretta--in the commission of the crime, which mandates a sentence of state prison time.

Pasadena Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling released Babb on $5,000, despite protests by the prosecutor, who asked for $75,000 bail.

“I was surprised at the bail,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Krag said outside the courthouse. “The case is quite serious. Here is a sworn police officer taking the very thing he is charged with protecting.”

Krag noted that since Babb was hired in November 1998, there have been more than 50 burglaries in the Pasadena Unified School District. Prosecutors and school officials believe that most were inside jobs but said there is evidence connecting Babb to only four, the ones for which he is charged.

In court Monday, Babb stood with his hands in his hip pockets throughout the proceedings. Babb, who is slated to appear in court again July 17, jogged from the Pasadena courthouse with hands up in front of his face as cameras and reporters pursued him.

His attorney, Gerald Cobb, asked that a preliminary hearing be delayed until a probation department interview can be done with his client. Although such reports routinely are used to arrange a plea bargain, Cobb said he wasn’t sure what he is going to do in Babb’s case.

Cobb said he has yet to view what authorities say is a May 7 videotape showing his client, in uniform, rifling through desks, prying open a door and attempting to crack the safe shortly before 6 a.m. at Pasadena High School.

“Videotapes don’t always turn out to be the hot item they claim to be,” Cobb said.

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.

Krag said that after the arrest, Babb was shown a color print of the video frame that allegedly placed him in the Pasadena High office. He said Babb gave an incriminating statement, leading investigators to property matching the description of that stolen from campus offices.

The prosecutor said Babb also has “made statements implicating himself” in three other burglaries: one at Washington Middle School between February and mid-March 1999; one at Roosevelt Elementary School between Jan. 26 and Jan. 27, 2000; and an earlier one at Pasadena High School between Dec. 17, 1999, and Jan. 3, 2000.

Detectives found a computer allegedly stolen from Washington Middle School in a storage locker used by Babb, Krag said. The Roosevelt Elementary School burglary, Krag said, involved $21 taken from someone’s desk.

Pasadena Police Lt. Keith Jones said that after Babb’s arrest, his bail was set at $15,000. Jones said the amount reflected the standard for those arrested on suspicion of a single count of commercial burglary.

But a duty court commissioner available to prisoners cut the bail to $5,000, Babb’s attorney said.