Easley won't rehire ex-trooper

Source: Charlotte Observer

Easley won't rehire ex-trooper
Governor `adamant' despite judge's ruling citing uneven punishment for sex on duty
Associated Press

RALEIGH --Gov. Mike Easley won't let a Highway Patrol trooper return to the job, even though a judge says the trooper is being treated differently from others who also had sex on the job, a spokesman says.

"The governor is adamant that we're not going to give the badge of law enforcement officer to somebody with issues of moral turpitude," Easley spokesman Seth Effron said in an e-mail. "Now that the judge has ruled, she can give that officer a job. But he won't be working for the state Highway Patrol as long as Governor Easley is in office."

A state administrative law judge said last week that former Trooper Monty Stevens Poarch's behavior was egregious enough to warrant being fired. But she also ruled that Poarch, fired in 2003 for having extramarital sex in his patrol car and at a patrol office, should get his job back and back pay.

Judge Melissa Owens Lassiter said Poarch's attorney should have the opportunity to present other cases in which troopers had sex while on duty, including a trooper who had sex with the same woman as Poarch.

Another trooper was not fired although he also had sex while on duty and made more than 20 threatening calls to his ex-wife.



Read more: Associated Press

Generalization it may be, but there's more than enough evidence to show that a majority of law enforcement personnel have sociopathic tendencies. Whether those tendencies are present from birth or learned "on the job" is debatable, but the truism holds that many fail to understand that they are public servants and not demigods immune to the consequences of their own bad behavior.

J

Some are good, some are bad, and some just don't care. The job does appeal to certain power-hungry asshole types, but it also draws people who genuinely want to serve.

In this case, it seems to me just to be a case with a guy who thought he could get away with getting a little during work. There are way worse things to do as a cop.

"Anybody else" doesn't have the POWER to control others with legal impunity.

"Anybody else" can't run around and crack heads with legal impunity.

etc.

Let's not generalize on this subject. Have brothers and a son who
are in law-enforcement both federal and local. None of which fall
within your general definition. Try taking a weapon away from a
drunken, crazed individual who has already attempted shooting other
persons and with every reason imaginable to support shooting that
individual chose to disarm him at great risk to himself.
Hardly the action of a sociopath. So despite your generalization
there are many more fine individuals out there looking out for your
ass every day and every hour, you may not respect them but most others
do.