Dismissal of Police Officer for Lying Is Upheld by Torrance City Council

Torrance City Council members Tuesday unanimously upheld the dismissal of a police officer who admitted lying about the accidental shooting of a motorcyclist last year.

Timothy Thornton, who had been a Torrance police officer for almost six years before his dismissal, and two colleagues were fired last December for lying about the shooting of construction worker Patrick Coyle on May 9, 1988.

Thornton, 30, previously appealed his dismissal at a series of closed-door meetings of the city’s Civil Service Commission, which also voted unanimously to uphold the department’s decision to fire him.

Tuesday’s hearing before the City Council was the first of numerous hearings on the Coyle case to be held in public.

During the 30-minute hearing, Thornton’s attorney, Cecil Marr, described his client as a young officer who feared losing his job and was bullied into lying by his supervisor, Officer Mark Holden, to protect the officer who fired the shot, Timothy Pappas.

Initially, the three officers reported that Pappas shot Coyle in the face because Coyle made a sudden grab toward a wrench tucked into his waistband. Coyle, who was partially paralyzed by the shot and still carries the bullet in his skull, was charged with resisting arrest.

Department investigators reopened the case in September after Thornton told superiors that Pappas fired the shot accidentally--several moments after Coyle had placed the wrench on the sidewalk.

“Circumstances often will cause us to do things we otherwise wouldn’t do,” Marr said, arguing that Thornton was under “extraordinary human pressure to lie.”

Firing Thornton after he came forward to reveal the cover-up would send “a chilling message” to other officers in the department, he said.

“There’s a message that will be sent. . . . ‘Don’t ever roll over. Don’t ever come clean. Don’t ever confess a wrong. Maintain the silence. Maintain the secret. Maintain the lie,’ ” Marr said. “That’s the lingering public policy issue here. You need to send a message to correct the wrong, not to maintain the lie.”

A private attorney hired by the city, however, accused Thornton of revealing the truth only because he believed he was about to be fired for poor job performance.

“The message you want to send back to the department is: ‘Tell the truth initially. Don’t get yourself in this situation,’ ” attorney Dan Cassidy told the council. “Coming back four months later after everything has hit the fan should not absolve him of the lie.”

Records show that Thornton had received several unsatisfactory job performance reviews and a five-day suspension before the shooting for “poor field investigations, poor report writing skills, inattention to detail and lack of job knowledge.” The suspension stemmed from charges of making false statements on a police report and mishandling property.

Thornton twice was placed on probationary status, which required him to work with field training officers who could supervise his performance. Holden was one of those officers.

Following their decision Tuesday, Mayor Katy Geissert read a joint statement from the council. Council members declined further comment on the case.

“This decision does not lessen in any way the appreciation that we have for the fact that Officer Thornton reconsidered his initial position and came forward to cooperate in the investigation,” the statement said.

Thornton, who has been working as a service manager in a car repair shop, spoke briefly with reporters after the decision, which he described as “something I expected.”

Marr said Thornton has 90 days to decide whether to pursue his case in court.

“That’s dragging it into next year,” Thornton lamented. “My feeling is I’d like to see everything ended. But I have to talk it over with my family and think about my future.”