The school police officer accused of lying about being shot by a burglary suspect near a Woodland Hills high school was in court Wednesday.
The case against Jeff Stenroos was postponed to give Stenroos time to hire an attorney.
Stenroos faces five criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 19 report, which triggered a manhunt and several school lockdowns. Stenroos, 30, was scheduled for arraignment in Van Nuys Superior Court on one felony count each of filing a false report, perjury by declaration, preparing false documentary evidence and insurance fraud, and one misdemeanor count of false report of an emergency.
The arraignment was postponed to give Stenroos time to hire an attorney.
The shooting report led to a manhunt that involved 350 officers and deputies, and a multi-school lockdown that affected thousands of students for about six hours. The cost of the admitted hoax has been calculated into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Stenroos is free on bond. He could face up to five years in state prison if convicted.
Case Background
Stenroos is accused of faking his own shooting while patrolling the high school's perimeter on Jan. 19, and telling fellow officers that he had been shot once in the chest while wearing a bulletproof vest. He was found on the ground by a passerby, who used Stenroos' police radio to call for help.
The officer's report sparked a massive manhunt, involving hundreds of police officers and sheriff's deputies, that resulted in the lockdown of nine schools in the area that affected thousands of students, their parents and residents. Thousands of students were restricted to their classrooms, with little food and no bathroom breaks for as many as five or six hours.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division determined there had been no shooting at the school as Stenroos had first described and that he had created false evidence when he claimed he was shot, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Stenroos returned to the command post about 7 p.m., ostensibly to assist in the investigation, after being treated at Northridge Medical Center.
The eight-year veteran of the school police force was arrested Jan. 27 on suspicion of filing a false police report and released on $20,000 bail about five hours later.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines issued an apology to everyone affected by the lockdowns and the dragnet through Woodland Hills, and said Stenroos would be fired.
