|
|
|
| NEWS > 15 December 2006 |
Other related articles:
Onalaska Police Officer Could
An Onalaska police officer could lose his job after being accused of lying and omitting facts during an investigation.
John Walker has been an officer on the Onalaska police force since 1986.
He currently serves as an investigator for the department, but now the Chief of Police is asking that Walker be terminated.
According to a report written by Chief Jeff Trotnic Walker was investigating a car break-in, in July, when he mishandled his investigation by breaking the department's policy for having a witness identify a suspect.
The report goes on to say Walker... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Vail Daily News - Vail,CO,USA
15 December 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
Cop quits after drunk-driving
AVON — Officer John Shook allegedly sped drunk to his Wildridge home Dec. 8, despite repeated warnings from fellow officers not to drive.
Shook, 24, faces a charge of drunk driving nearly a year after the Avon Police Department hired him in January. The arrest comes as Avon police and other local law enforcement agencies plan an intensive drunk-driving crackdown across Eagle County during the last weeks of the year.
According to the Avon Police arrest report, Shook took a new officer to Finnegan’s Wake restaurant the night of Dec. 7 to drink and welcome him to the valley. Two officers — Yvonne Ramirez and Randy Gray — checked the bar hours before closing and saw that Shook appeared to be drunk, the report says.
Both Ramirez and Gray returned to Finnegan’s Wake at about 2 a.m. and found Shook and the new officer in the parking lot. Gray gave Shook a breath test, which registered nearly twice the legal limit to drive at .15 blood alcohol content, the report says.
Gray and Ramirez repeatedly tried to convince Shook not to drive and offered him a ride home. Ramirez even opened Shook’s passenger door and twice asked him to turn off his truck and get out, the report says.
“I’m fine,” Shook said several times.
Thursday, Shook said the officers might have done more to stop him, and he contends the breath test is unreliable. But after seeing the .15 result of the breath test, Shook still decided to drive home, the report says.
“I don’t know what to say,” Shook said. “Alcohol clouds your judgment, and I wanted to drive home.”
He drove away and Ramirez followed several car lengths behind with her emergency lights flashing, the report says.
Shook drove 50 mph the entire way home, according to the report, but Shook said he never saw the lights or heard a siren.
“If there was an officer behind me when I got home, then I would have seen them when I waited for the garage door to open,” he said.
He parked his truck in the garage and went inside. Several minutes later he noticed two patrol cars on the street and went outside to speak with Gray, Shook said.
Gray told him Ramirez was following him, Shook said, although the report doesn’t mention this conversation. Shook then went back inside.
Meanwhile, Ramirez called Avon Police Chief Brian Kozak, who shortly thereafter arrived, called Shook and asked him to come outside.
Kozak noticed Shook was swaying, had bloodshot watery eyes and smelled of alcohol, the report says.
The two went to the police station, where Shook failed several sobriety tests and blew a .095, the report says.
Kozak arrested him for allegedly driving drunk. Later the same day, Shook quit.
Shook likely would have been fired, considering he ignored fellow officers’ warnings not to drive, Kozak said.
“I told him the public would have no trust if he continued to work here,” he said.
Kozak also commended Ramirez and Gray for their attempts to stop Shook, despite the fact he was a fellow officer.
“It showed they have high integrity and conducted their job no matter who is involved,” Kozak said.
Shook, who is in the military, said on the night of his arrest he was upset about a suicide and hunting accident in his family and worried he might be deployed to Iraq, he said.
“Who wouldn’t be worried about going to Iraq?” Shook said.
Kozak will head a press conference at 3 p.m. Friday to announce the beginning to the drunk driving crackdown. Drunk-driving victims, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving representative and others will speak at a press conference at 3 p.m. in the Avon Municipal Building.
“If we catch you driving impaired, we will arrest you,” Kozak said. “No exceptions. No excuses.”
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
