Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 27, 2006 11:47:47 GMT -5
Officer Jerry Greene
01/27/2006 - Missouri - A Columbia police sergeant who was charged last week with driving while intoxicated and speeding in Audrain County has submitted his resignation.
Sgt. Jerry Greene, 40, resigned this afternoon as supervisor of the Columbia Police Department’s narcotics unit effective Feb. 9.
Greene was pulled over at 12:43 a.m. Jan 15 on Highway 15, north of Route CC, after a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper clocked him driving 72 mph in a 55-mph zone. Greene was arrested and later freed on an $800 bond from the Audrain County Jail. He had been on paid administrative leave pending an internal police investigation.
Audrain County Prosecuting Attorney Jason Lamb charged Greene last Thursday with driving while intoxicated, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by as much as six months in jail and a fine of $500. Greene also was charged with speeding, a Class C misdemeanor punishable by as much as 15 days in jail and a fine of $300.
Boehm said today that the situation involves more than the discipline of Greene because, ultimately, it’s the credibility of the whole department that is under scrutiny any time an officer’s behavior is questioned.
"We are held to a higher standard" than the general public "and I think that’s fair," Boehm said. "We have a lot of responsibility and with that comes a lot of accountability. We are among the most visible part of government."
According to a probable cause statement by Trooper Curtis Wilt, there were five passengers in Greene’s Ford F-150 pickup - two women and three men. All of them had been drinking.
Boehm said two of the men were off-duty Columbia police, but neither was disciplined because they didn’t break any laws.
"They are certainly guilty of using poor judgment, in my opinion, and they’ve been told that," Boehm said.
Wilt said in his statement that after he pulled Greene over, he noticed the driver’s eyes appeared "watery and bloodshot, and his speech was slurred."
Greene "was fumbling with his wallet, and had difficulty getting his driver’s license out," Wilt said, adding that he smelled alcohol on Greene, who appeared to be avoiding eye contact.
Greene "held his wallet open in his lap, displaying a Columbia Police Department identification card," Wilt wrote. "I asked Greene to accompany me in my patrol car, which he agreed to do."
Once inside the patrol car, Wilt noticed "a strong odor of intoxicants" on Greene’s breath. Greene told Wilt that he had consumed at least six or seven beers and that the only reason he was driving was because the other people in the vehicle "had way too much to drink."
Greene was put through a series of field alcohol tests, during which Wilt wrote that Greene kept saying, "Don’t do this," and making comments about how he had been a police officer for 13 years. During one test, Greene recited the letters A though J correctly, Wilt said, "but he mumbled and slurred the rest of the letters together."
About an hour after Greene was pulled over, a breath sample taken at the jail in Mexico, Mo., showed that his blood alcohol content was .203, compared to the legal limit of .08.
Wilt indicated in his statement that Greene had one prior alcohol-related conviction in 1987, five years before he was hired by then-Columbia Police Chief Ernie Barbee as a police officer.