Drug Charge Filed Against ’88 Police Shooting Victim

A felony drug charge has been filed against Patrick J. Coyle, the Torrance man whose shooting last year led to the firing of three Torrance police officers.

Coyle, 32, was charged Wednesday in South Bay Municipal Court with possession of methamphetamine. His arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 25.

Sheriff’s deputies said they arrested Coyle on the drug charge while he was with one of two brothers whom authorities were seeking for violating their paroles.

Robert Allen Thorpe had been paroled from prison after an attempted-murder conviction, while Ronald Paul Thorpe had been released from state prison after serving time for assault, said Sheriff’s Detective Terry Moreland. The brothers had failed to visit their parole officer, who asked the county’s Multijurisdictional Criminal Apprehension Detail, based in Carson, to arrest them.

Police said they saw Robert Thorpe leaving his mother’s home in Lomita on Nov. 29, along with another man who they believed was Ronald Thorpe.

They stopped the men a short time later and arrested Robert Thorpe for violating his parole, but learned that the other man was actually Patrick Coyle, Detective Moreland said.

Coyle was arrested after officers saw a vial of crystals, which proved to be two grams of methamphetamine, near the gearshift of his 1957 Chevrolet, Moreland said.

Coyle, who was released on his own recognizance, could not be reached for comment about the charge.

The incident that led to the firing of the three police officers occurred May 9, 1988, when Coyle, an unemployed construction worker, was stopped near Western Avenue by Torrance police. Officer Timothy Pappas, who would later say Coyle was acting suspiciously in a neighborhood frequented by drug dealers, fired a single shot that hit Coyle in the chin and partially paralyzed him.

The policeman later told superiors that he fired his gun when Coyle reached suddenly toward a shiny object in his waistband. Two backup officers, Mark Holden and Timothy Thornton, supported that account.

But Thornton later said the shooting had been unprovoked.

All three officers were fired after the Police Department concluded that they had lied about the incident.

Earlier this month, Pappas was fined $2,250 and placed on probation for one year after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of falsifying a police report and obstructing an investigation. Holden has been ordered to stand trial on conspiracy charges. Thornton was granted immunity to testify against the other two.

The city has admitted liability in the incident, although no settlement has been reached in the case.