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Police officer's penalty for ethnic slur overturned
By ANNE LINDBERG © St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000 PINELLAS PARK -- The chief has overturned a suspension and restored three days' pay to a police sergeant accused of making a racial slur against Vietnamese people. Chief David Milchan said he felt the sergeant already had been disciplined for a subsequent comment with sexual content. Punishing Sgt. Michael Darroch for the earlier racial epithet was tantamount to double jeopardy, the chief said. Additionally, the racially insensitive remark was uttered last November, and Milchan said that disciplining someone for something that old "just doesn't seem fair." While the incident will remain in Darroch's file, the three days' suspension without pay will be expunged and the lost money will be given to him. Darroch, 39, is a 15-year veteran of the department. He earns about $49,100 a year. The incident upsets at least one member of the county's Asian community who said he worries about the message that will be sent to Pinellas Park residents. He also feared the situation could cause hard feelings and bad community relations with Asian residents in the city. "The person doesn't seem to be aware of the diversity of the population, and he needs some training on that," said Bun Hap Prak, director of the Asian Family Center in St. Petersburg. "It seems to project an image of a police officer not friendly to the minority, especially the Asian, community. . . . I would like to see further action." Darroch's ethnic slur first came to city officials' notice in May during a personnel investigation into allegations by Pinellas Park police Officer Donna Saxer that she had been a victim of sexual harassment and discrimination. She also alleged she had been subjected to a hostile work environment and made charges of favoritism and retaliation. Saxer has since filed state and federal claims. While the personnel inquiry found that Saxer had not been subjected to a hostile work environment, the statement that Darroch allegedly made was confirmed by other officers. Personnel officials recommended that Darroch be disciplined. Milchan was out of town at the time and acting police Chief Bob Hempel handed down the suspension. Last week, Darroch appealed the decision through the police union. The appeal had six points that Milchan addressed in his decision. Among those points and Milchan's comments: The inquiry violated the Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights because Darroch was not told he was being investigated. Milchan relied on a city attorney's opinion that the Bill of Rights had not been violated. The racial epithet was not a slur in the context in which it was used. Milchan said his research left "no doubt that the word is a racial slur." The punishment was unfair because it is a form of "double jeopardy." Darroch already had been disciplined for a subsequent comment with sexual content. That punishment, Darroch argued, also covered this incident. Since that discipline, there have been no other incidents, he said. Milchan agreed, saying that if he had been notified in May when personnel first found out about the racial slur, he would have disciplined Darroch then. That punishment would have prevented the later sexual comment, the chief said. "I cannot recall another case where we went back six months or more and cited someone for the same thing for which they had later been disciplined," Milchan wrote. "To do so seems to me a violation of, if not the law, certainly the spirit of the law against double jeopardy. Put another way, it just doesn't seem fair." Milchan concluded that the Police Department mission statement says that all people will be treated with "respect, fairness and compassion." "It seems to me that fairness and compassion are key words to be considered in this case," Milchan wrote.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
