Jeff Stenroos, LA School Police Officer, Staged Shooting To Look Like A Hero: Prosecutors

LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors say a Los Angeles school police officer made up a story about being shot by a car burglary suspect to look like a hero.

In opening statements Friday, prosecutors said 31-year-old Jeff Stenroos accidentally shot himself while patrolling a high school, but lied about it, saying he'd been shot while wearing a bulletproof vest.

Stenroos is facing a non-jury trial on charges of preparing a false police report, planting false evidence and other counts stemming from his Jan. 19 report. Some 9,000 students were held in their schools for hours while hundreds of police officers searched for a gunman.

Defense attorneys declined to offer an opening statement.

Stenroos could be sentenced to more than five years in prison if convicted.

Comments

[dbrett480]

10:17 PM on 09/02/2011

Another unfortunate aspect of this shooting is that people will get suspicious and doubt other officer involved shootings.

[Erinky Jammees]

08:42 PM on 08/29/2011

so the taxpayer is paying for a corrupt legal system, an overpaid failed uneducated idiot cop sleeping with ugly uneducated overpaid teachers. our money at work.

[Topps]

07:41 AM on 08/29/2011

Send him away he was willing to bring havoc upon a innocent individual with his lies.

[Foodgrade]

08:34 PM on 08/28/2011

Just another important reason why cops have no more business around schools than child molestors do. Why anyone thinks having cops armed to the teeth, searching little girls as they enter the school is a good idea, I'll never know. Then the school staff wants to get into the act, like the staff who strip searched a little girl over a cough drop or asperin, whatever it was. This entire cop/surveillance mentality in this country really has to go.

[wheelzroller]

03:49 PM on 08/28/2011

I guess he wanted to be a star . Now he will a lesser character on Criminal Minds !

[longnow]

12:55 PM on 08/28/2011

Accidentally shot himself while probably higher than a kite.

[DAV2008]

12:53 PM on 08/28/2011

This also happened in my city Lansing Mi a cop shot himself in the arm behind a strip mall and then said a Black Man did it. He got off on probation and lost his job, but during this there was a dragnet of cops roaming through the neighborhood.

[derekw007]

10:38 AM on 08/28/2011

Hold on, maybe it was an "desk pop" gone bad.

[AndyWright68]

10:09 AM on 08/28/2011

The cops simply need to be abolished. They threaten the people far more than they do protecting them. In fact, they do not protect anyone. They mostly hide on the side of the roads like bandits stealing money from productive people so they can get ridiculous pensions. They protect and serve the state, not the people. They are just bullies with badges who abuse and brutalize mostly nonviolent people. The violent criminals are too hard to catch and too risky for them. They would rather steal your money, it's much safer.

Cops have the highest rates of alcoholism, drug use, steroid use, domestic violence, child abuse, spousal abuse, suicide and murder-suicide. And it is not due to the stress of the job it is due to their abusive, violent power over others and their adrenaline addictions. It is very difficult to not bring your work home. And even if it was some other reason it would prove that the cops should be abolished because that reason caused them to beat their kids, wives and do drugs to relieve the pain of being such a rotten human being.

Abolish the cops!

[Foodgrade]

08:26 PM on 08/28/2011

Fanned. But who else would protect the corporate thieves, other than violent sociopaths who are allowed to indulge in their violent urges in exchange?

[1hutch]

12:12 AM on 08/30/2011

Also fanned. Please add institutional theft under the guise of protecting us, the citizens, from ourselves. I'm dealing with such an issue as I write this small response.

[oh yes money speaks]

09:58 AM on 08/28/2011

Good job ace! Who's hero did you want to be anyway??? Once in jail, you'll be EVERYONE'S hero.

[Foodgrade]

08:29 PM on 08/28/2011

Oh, he'll get a sentence light enough to serve in jail if at all, and be well protected. Too bad he didn't shoot a black kid, he would have walked from the get go. On the other hand, if cops shooting themselves and nobody else becomes common, I'll stand back and let em have at it.

[opiniongirl18]

09:29 AM on 08/28/2011

this pig is my hero what a scam bag----- WHO LET THIS DOG OUT? -------WOW TO SERVE AND PROTECTA YES --SIR

[ebanks84]

08:25 AM on 08/28/2011

Boy oh boy, will his fellow inmates love him. Cops should realize that if they do anything that puts them in jail, they are risking their lives for sure. Why would they be so stupid to do something as trivial as this. You mean being a supposedly "hero" is "THAT" important?

I don't think so!

[MXL]

06:41 AM on 08/28/2011

Another liar in a police uniform. What an awesome role model.

[El Chingaso]

04:02 AM on 08/28/2011

Just another notch on the gun...of public school and law enforcement silliness. Seems plausible to suggest, too, that school administrators and local police..."actually believe" TV movie plots as functional reality. Wow, man...`

[zombywulf]

02:42 AM on 08/28/2011

Quick promote him and give him a bonus for using the plot of dozens of bad tv movies