LAUSD cop indicted on 6 counts in alleged shooting hoax

The Los Angeles Unified School District released this photo Monday, Jan. 31, 2011, of Jeff Stenroos, the school police officer who allegedly filed a false report about being shot by a would-be robber near El Camino Real High on Jan. 19, prompting nine schools in the Woodland Hills area to be placed on lockdown as hundreds of officers swarmed the area looking for a suspect who never materialized. (LAUSD)

A Los Angeles Unified school police officer accused of faking his own shooting that triggered a massive manhunt in the West Valley in January was indicted today by a grand jury on six counts.

Jeff Stenroos, 30, pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of insurance fraud, workers' compensation fraud, preparing a false police report, preparing false documentary evidence and planting false evidence. He is also charged with one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

The indictment, returned by a grand jury on Thursday and unsealed today, added insurance fraud and planting evidence to the charges leveled against Stenroos in March, but dropped one count of perjury, according to the DA's Office.

The city is seeking $361,289 in restitution for the 10-hour manhunt that sent more than 550 officers pouring into an eight square-mile area of the San Fernando Valley with dogs, assault weapons and helicopters, according to Deputy District Attorney Paul Nunez.

LAUSD is also seeking $58,000 in medical costs incurred after Stenroos was treated and released from Northridge Medical Center the day of the alleged hoax. He also checked into Henry Mayo Hospital in Santa Clarita the next weekend after complaining of ongoing pain, according to the DA's Office.

He was charged with insurance fraud because he sought treatment for injuries he never sustained, according to

the DA?s Office.

The district is still calculating total costs for keeping 9,000 students in lockdown at nine campuses that included El Camino Real High School and Hale Middle School.

Stenroos, of Santa Clarita, said he had been shot in the chest by a car burglar while he was on duty at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills on Jan. 19. A Good Samaritan spotted Stenroos lying on the ground next to his patrol car and used its radio to call for help.

Stenroos, an eight year veteran of the force, reported that the burglar had escaped on foot, prompting law enforcement to lock down the schools late into the evening and close streets to local residents.

LAPD's Robbery Homicide Division later determined there was no shooting at the school and that Stenroos had made up the evidence, according to the DA's Office.

The indictment eliminates the need for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence for Stenroos to stand trial.

Stenroos is on paid administrative leave from the district.

He is scheduled to return to Van Nuys Superior Court on May 18. If convicted, he faces up to five years, eight months in state prison.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18057692?source=rss

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