LA
PORTE, Ind. — A South Bend police officer currently suspended for drunk driving
was arrested on Sunday for DUI according to La Porte Police. Officers said
Patrolman Jeff McKee's blood alcohol level as about two times the legal limit.
ABC57 contacted the South Bend Police Department and they said they are aware
of McKee's recent charges and have re-initiated an investigation. Earlier
this month, the Board of Public Safety suspended McKee for an October 2012
arrest for DUI. He accepted a plea and in December that charge was reduced to
reckless driving.
Somerset, Massachusetts: The police cops who is facing felony drug charges after allegedly convincing an elderly man to hand over expired prescription drugs resigned from the police force. ow.ly/i9cz5
Benton, Arkansas: A cop was fired for violating policies and
procedures after he was pulled over and arrested for driving while intoxicated.
ow.ly/i6C2g
South Bend, Indiana: A police cops has been arrested for a
second time for driving drunk. When he was pulled over he allegedly whispered
to the arresting cops, “Man, I’m a South Bend Police Cops.” ow.ly/i6hGz
South Bend, Indiana: The city’s Board of Public Safety
accepted the suspension of a police cops who was arrested on suspicion of
driving while intoxicated. ow.ly/hWqIc
Boulder, Colorado: Two police officers charged with driving
under the influence in separate cases have resigned. ow.ly/i15yN
Somerset, Massachusetts: The police officer who is facing
felony drug charges after allegedly convincing an elderly man to hand over
expired prescription drugs resigned from the police force. ow.ly/i9cz5
Bamberg police officer charged with DUI
A Bamberg Police Department officer was arrested and charged
with driving under the influence over the weekend, according to
Augusta-Ga.-based WJBF News Channel 6.
Corey James Bamberg, 35, was arrested by an officer with the
Cayce Department of Public Safety on Saturday on a charge of driving under the
influence of alcohol or drugs, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s
office.
Bamberg was released later on Saturday from the Lexington County
Detention Center after posting $1,229 bond.
Bamberg, who was to be the department’s K-9 handler, also serves
as a school resource officer at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School, according to the
station.
A request for the incident report was denied by the Cayce
Department of Public Safety due to the fact that it had not gone “through the
appropriate chain of command.” Recent police incident reports are supposed to
be immediately available to the public under the S.C. Freedom of Information
Act.
Bamberg Police Chief George Morris did not immediately return phone
calls on the officer’s status on Tuesday.
Cop's
license remains suspended in drunken-driving crash
ALBANY — The
driver's license of a city policeman will remain suspended for at least three
to four months after a Department of
Motor Vehicles hearing on Thursday.
Officer Max Etienne
faces several charges after he allegedly slammed into three parked cars earlier
this month while driving drunk in Pine Hills and then tried to drive away.
He pleaded not
guilty Feb. 19 to driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a property
damage accident, both misdemeanors, and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test
and failing to stay in a single lane, both violations. His driver's license was
suspended at that court appearance.
Etienne, a
42-year-old, 10-year veteran of the force who was one of the city's
highest-earning employees in 2012, did not appear at Thursday's hearing before
Administrative Law Judge William S. Myers.
Michael
McDermott, who is Etienne's attorney, and two police officers from
the department's internal affairs unit met with the judge.
McDermott said his
client is in treatment, and asked for an adjournment. Myers continued the
license suspension.
Etienne's license
could be revoked for up to one year.
Police said
Etienne barrelled his Chevy Tahoe into a row of parked cars near the
intersection of South Main Avenue and Bancker Street in the predawn hours of
Feb. 17. In the arrest report, police said Etienne reeked of alcohol, slurred
his words, had poor balance and motor coordination and failed three field
sobriety tests. No one was injured in the crash.
The police
department is conducting an internal investigation.
Etienne, has been
the subject of internal investigations before. In December 2008, he crashed
into three parked cars on Colatosti Place and then drove away. Three months
before that, Etienne allegedly dropped his department-issued handgun outside a
bar during the annual LarkFest celebration. The new investigation could result
in consequences ranging from suspension to firing.
Etienne, who
earned just over $117,500 in 2012, is temporarily suspended without pay.
In 2011, the
department fired Officer Brian Lutz
on the grounds he could not perform his job after the DMV revoked his driver's
license for his December 2010 drunken driving arrest. The Appellate
Division of state Supreme Court,
however, sided with Lutz in November, saying the firing based solely on the
revoked license was "both arbitrary and capricious and contrary to
law."
Because of that
ruling, Albany Police Chief Steve Krokoff
has said that the department would not fire Etienne if his license is revoked.
Because Etienne
refused to take a Breathalyzer exam, he can't plead to lesser charges. In May
2011, District Attorney David Soares
made it a policy to not accept plea bargains in DWI cases when a defendant
refuses to take a chemical breath test.
That policy change
came one month after then-police spokesman James Miller
pleaded guilty to driving while ability impaired by alcohol, a violation, for a
March 2011 arrest for which Miller refused to take a breath test.