Drunken speeding is no reason to be fired, says ex-cop Derrick Saunders
The Denver Police Department has had a difficult time firing bad cops over the past few years. And while the Department of Safety finally made some headway in 2011, it still has issues.
For example, when Derrick Curtis Saunders was canned earlier this month, a whopping eighteen months after he was busted driving 143 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone...at night...while drunk, it seemed like a good move. Late, but good.
(Saunders, by the way, is also the guy who made our 2009 Year in Review issue after he was accused (and later cleared) of pointing his pistol at a McDonald's employee to speed up his order.)
But, as is often the case with Denver cops, Saunders doesn't feel like he has been treated fairly -- and he's appealing Manager of Safety Alex Martinez's termination order. In it, Saunders claims that being fired was "disproportionate to the offenses alleged and/or is excessive so as to be punitive rather than corrective in nature."
The Colorado State Patrol may have said that he was driving 88 miles over the speed limit and with a blood-alcohol level of .089 percent, but, hey, at least he wasn't driving 100 miles over the speed limit with a blood-alcohol content of .1. Right?
Wrong. Time for Saunders to look for a new job. Maybe McDonald's is hiring.
For more shmucky behavior, see our 2011 Hall of Shame.
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