King City Police Sgt. Mark Baker pleads no contest to misdemeanor charge in plea deal.

Days before his case was scheduled to go to go trial, King City Police Sgt. Mark Allen Baker agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment.

He was originally charged in February with a felony for making criminal threats.

Baker was arrested on Feb. 25, along with about a third of the King City Police Department, though his case was not related to the alleged towing scheme, which names three defendants (the acting chief Bruce Miller, his brother and tow company owner Brian Miller, and Officer Bobby Carrillo). 

The case against Baker focused on one isolated incident in which law enforcement turned personal.  

On Aug. 19, 2013, Baker's personal truck was stolen from the Mee Memorial Hospital parking lot. It was stripped, and recovered three days later by KCPD.

In uniform, Baker confronted a supposed suspect of the car theft. After Baker saw his girlfriend's sunglasses on the dashboard of Leon Infante's car, he approached him at a motel and told Infante he would “make him disappear, and not to jail," according to attorneys who worked on the case.

Infante confessed he had items stolen from the truck, including a gate key to Baker's Paso Robles home, and prosecutors say Baker gave him two hours to return those belonging—plus $40 for gas. He did, and Baker never filed a police report about the incident. 

"The way in which Mark acted was just not appropriate for a peace officer in uniform," says Tom Worthington, his defense attorney.

Baker will return to court March 18, 2015 for sentencing. He'll be required to serve five years probation, with a condition that he not possess any firearms. The maximum sentence is one year in jail. 

"This man should not go to jail," Worthington says. “He’s a good man who made a real serious mistake.”

After 17 years with KCPD, Baker will not return to law enforcement, Worthington says. He was already burnt out before this arrest; he's currently on administrative leave.

Baker is also likely to be back in court as the other King City Police officers' cases proceed. Worthington expects he'll be called to testify. 

"Whichever side calls him, he’s going to raise his right hand," Worthington says, and "let the chips fall where they may."