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Jeffrey Stenroos, the LAUSD police officer charged with faking his own shooting, created the elaborate hoax to look like a hero, prosecutors said in their opening statement yesterday.Stenroos has been formally charged with multiple felonies, including perjury and filing a false insurance claim.
On the opening day of the non-jury trial against Stenroos, prosecutors painted the former school cop as a serial liar, who was hoping to make a buck by staging the hoax.
"Jeff Stenroos placed his desire for money and being a hero above the safety of the children he was sworn to protect," said prosecutor Paul M. Nunez in court, according to The Daily News.
Stenroos claimed he'd been shot outside El Camino Real High School in January, and came up with a phony description of the incident and the suspect. Large swaths of the neighborhood were cordoned off to look for the suspect, while El Camino Real High School and other local schools, were placed on lockdown.
The "hoax" wound up costing the city and the LAUSD over $400,000, and the LAPD a heckuva lot of time.
At one point in the investigation, Stenroos said his gun "accidentally went off," but on Friday his defense declined to make an opening statement.