Ex-Officer to Stand Trial in Robbery Case

A retired Oxnard police officer was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges of attempted bank robbery after telling a judge that he was doing research for a police training video when he entered a bank wearing a disguise and carrying a loaded handgun.

Ed Ludaescher, 40, is charged with attempted robbery, burglary and placing a mock bomb with intent to cause fear. He took the stand in his defense Tuesday to deny the charges.

Prosecutors presented evidence they say shows that Ludaescher was deeply in debt and concocted an elaborate explanation that they argued can only be interpreted as an attempted bank heist.

“He’s the kind of guy who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else,” said Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Patricia Murphy.

Speaking after the hearing, she said Ludaescher had a clear motive to commit robbery and gave conflicting stories that suggest he is lying.

“I don’t believe one bit of it,” Murphy said. “I didn’t believe it when he told the officer, and I didn’t believe it here today.”

Ludaescher’s preliminary hearing started Monday in Ventura County Superior Court.

The former officer entered American Commercial Bank in Oxnard on Nov. 13 armed and wearing a disguise, prosecutors said. Bank employees called police after Ludaescher allegedly placed what appeared to be a bomb in a bathroom trash can.

Ludaescher testified Tuesday that he was conducting research for a police training video that was to feature a gun-like device he had invented that shoots bullets and pepper spray.

“I was trying to gain some insight for a video we were going to shoot,” he told Judge James P. Cloninger. “I wasn’t there to commit a crime.”

A former SWAT team leader and patrol officer with the Oxnard Police Department, Ludaescher testified that he has no prior criminal record. He retired from the department in December 1999 after suffering a back injury and has been trying to market his nonlethal pepper-spray device to law enforcement agencies, he said.

Ludaescher said he wanted to see how bank personnel would respond to a “suspicious person.” So he made an appointment at the bank and assumed the character of a Texas businessman, he told the court.

Dressed in a suit, cowboy hat, heavy pancake makeup and a fake mustache, he arrived at the A Street bank in a hired white limousine. He was carrying a police scanner, a handgun and two “harmless bags of rocks,” as defense lawyer Steve Pell called them, one of which he admitted placing in a bathroom trash can.

Ludaescher said he never demanded any money and never threatened to hurt anyone in the bank.

On cross-examination, Murphy asked Ludaescher why he didn’t notify police or bank management of his plans.

“I didn’t feel the need,” he said.

Although the former officer denied on direct examination that he had financial troubles, he acknowledged under Murphy’s questioning that his household expenses exceeded his monthly income.

Ludaescher admitted that his company was heavily in debt and testified that he hasn’t drawn a salary in the past year. He said he is living on an $81,000 disability settlement that is almost gone.

Ludaescher also said that he was determined to salvage the promise of his pepper-spray invention.

“Yes, it is my baby,” he testified. “And I would do anything to make it a success.”

Without comment, Cloninger ordered Ludaescher to stand trial on all charges. Ludaescher remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail.