| Officer not fired | ||
  Paducah Police Chief Randy Bratton speaks to attorney Stacey Blankenship during the hearing of Officer Brent Obermark (inset) on Monday. |
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Hearing reviews acceptable discipline for policeman-merchant |
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| The Paducah City Commission voted unanimously Monday to suspend police officer Brent Obermark for six months without pay, overruling police Chief Randy Bratton’s recommendation to fire him. Obermark has been on unpaid suspension since Oct. 24, meaning he could return to work next month. The ruling came after a seven-hour hearing and 30 minutes of deliberation. Neither side disputed the facts of the case: On Aug. 3, a woman wrote a check for $37.07 ater returned for insufficient funds to the Tobacco Barn, the Hinkleville Road business Obermark owns. Rather than turn the case over to the county attorney’s office, as is common practice, Obermark requested driver’s license information on the woman from Paducah-McCracken County E-911 and asked deputy sheriffs from Marshall and McCracken counties to go to addresses he uncovered to try to get a phone number for her. He did all of this without telling anyone involved why he was looking for her or that he owned the business involved, and most of it while on duty. When he finally made contact with the woman more than a month later, she went to the store and paid the amount of the checkplus a $25 fee. |
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A clerk in the county attorney’s office
brought the case to the police department’s
attention. When compelled to be interviewed, Obermark told the entire story truthfully, both sides agree. Where the two sides differed was on the acceptable discipline. Bratton sought termination, testifying he did not believe Obermark understood the severity of his actions. “We are not allowed to conduct rogue investigations of citizens for personal gain,” Bratton said. He added that the actions were particularly egregious given Obermark’s 12 years of experience. “Even a rookie officer would have known it was not acceptable.” The department had turned the case over to the state police for an investigation into possible official misconduct, but the state police sent a letter to Bratton on Friday saying the case was closed and declining prosecution. Bratton said before the commission’s decision that he planned to ask the state police to reconsider after the hearing, when the evidence would become a public record. After the commission voted for suspension rather than termination, Bratton said he would discuss the matter with City Manager Jim Zumwalt before deciding how to proceed. |
Obermark’s attorney, David Leightty, argued that other Paducah police officers have committed greater offenses and received lesser punishments. When he tried to provide examples, Stacey Blankenship, the attorney representing Bratton, objected on the grounds that those cases had nothing to do with Obermark. Mayor Bill Paxton upheld her objection. Obermark testified, but Leightty did not allow him to answer any questions regarding the check case, advising him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination given the possible state police investigation. Although the commission’s vote was unanimous, Commissioner Robert Coleman said he would have preferred a lesser penalty. He twice noted that the matter would not have come before the commission if the woman had not written a bad check. The commission’s order also required Obermark to write a letter of apology to the woman. The six-month suspension is the longest given to an officer in Bratton’s seven years as chief. He said he believed that anything longer than a 30-day suspension should result in termination, but he respected the ommission’s decision. |
| C.D. Bradley can be
contacted at 575-8617. cdbradley@paducahsun.com Printed in the Paducah Sun, March 18, 2008 |
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