The Second In Command of the Indianapolis Police Department and two other officers have been demoted over their handling of an officer who killed a motorcyclist in an alleged drunken accident. Assistant Chief Darryl Pierce, Deputy Chief Ron Hicks and Homeland Security Commander John Conley will now hold the rank of lieutenant.
The officers are accused of not taking control of the scene and allowing mistakes to occur that allowed Officer David Bisard avoid a DUI finding.
Bisard was speeding on his way to serve a felony warrant when he ran his cruiser into two motorcycles stopped at an Indianapolis intersection. A test showed Bisard’s blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent, more than twice the limit.
Motorcyclist Eric Wells, 30, was killed. On the other motorcycle, driver, Kurt Weekly, 44, and his passenger, Mary Mills, 47, were both seriously injured.
Bisard avoided the DUI finding due to the fact that the person administering the test was not certified. He is still facing reckless homicide and other charges.
Source: WANE.
Only when someone is killed will action be taken and not even then. To wit Chicago….Las Vegas style motoring….just sayin…
Well…
They should be holding the rank of unemployed.
Are they being punished for failing to properly handle a criminal matter, or punished for failing to totally cover up an officer’s misdeeds?
I take it from the fact that there will be some prosecution of the drunk officer, that the people injured/killed were “white.”
(man, I need to dial back the cynicism…)
tomdarch,
Syndicated “cyanideism” need not be scaled back in my book and if I am correct there are a number on here that agree with you. Unfortunately, someone was killed, fortunately it was not a racial minority or I don’t think that the rest of the officers would be disciplined, just the one that responded and the one that killed. And more than likely, an administrative suspension over bad paperwork and a misdemeanor dui. The worst of best case, nothing would have happened to all of them be charged with conspiracy to commit manslaughter. Its the best case/worst depending on which side you are.
I agree with Buddha. This guys should all be looking for new employment.
Black-balled from copdom forever.
Were the guys from Philly re-hired?
The guys from Denver are still in trouble. The police department has launched an internal investigation and the FBI is continuing its investigation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_re_us/us_denver_police_investigation_2
The cops in question *did* manage to test the dead biker’s blood successfully though, isn’t that amazing. I’m so glasd they had their priorities in order. Of course we’re talking about a town where two separate police forces actually rumbled in the streets when a sherriff tried to ticket a city cop. We’re talking about a perfect police force, one that has NEVER seen a shooting that was ruled unjustifiable in the entire history of the police force.
This is a city where a young black man dressed only in high-top shoes and shorts, twice body searched and handcuffed, sitting in the back of a police cruiser, again, handcuffed and allegedly thoroughly searched now – somehow this young man manages to shoot himself in the head while in police custody. I guess Indy lost the most talented young man in America since Houdini that day. (His name was Michael Taylor, and I believe he was all of 18 years old)
I could go on and on but don’t have 6 months to devote to this email…
The poster boy for political corruption Mayor Daley’s Chicago is right up there too…
QUOTE
Two civil juries have recently awarded multimillion-dollar settlements to men who said the police had abused them. The department will pay $4 million to one, Coprez Coffie, who testified that he was sodomized with a screwdriver. A jury awarded the other man, Timothy Finwall, $2 million for being framed and falsely arrested.
Jon Loevy, whose law firm represented the men, said the Police Department had shown no interest in dealing with the problem, noting that internal reviews had found no wrongdoing or need for disciplinary action in either case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/us/26chicago.html?_r=2
What a joke!!
we are looking for these types of cases for our site. This case is valuable for law students and others. We would like to thank you for this deserving case.