Stupid Trooper Tricks

The commander of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, Randy Glover, resigned last week. In office for less than a year, he has been plagued by a rash of "stupid trooper tricks." In a meeting with Governor Beverly Perdue, he offered his resignation and Aunt Bev accepted it. Tough ending for a guy who has been alleged to be more than friends with Aunt Bev.

Aunt Bev has been in office for less than two years, it seems like longer to those of us who live in North Carolina. Where is that ethical administration she promised? Only Obama is a bigger crook than Aunt Bev.

The NC Highway Patrol is an organization in need of a good ass kicking. Here's a list of incidents recently published that involve the Highway Patrol since Aunt Bev took the reins.

"Maj. Everett Clendenin: The patrol's spokesman for much of the last decade, Clendenin resigned June 23 after he sent more than 2,600 messages, many of them sexually explicit, to his secretary. (2600 messages in less than 3 months, when was he working?)

Capt. James Williams Jr.: Williams, who supervised patrol operations in a 12-county area that includes Wake, was fired May 13 after he was caught driving drunk while off duty on Interstate 85. Three officers from Butner Public Safety, a state agency, were also fired for failing to arrest Williams, deciding instead to give the trooper a ride to a nearby motel.(How many of us would get a ride to a hotel in a similar situation?)

Trooper Larry B. Lovick: Lovick, of Raleigh, resigned June 7. He is under investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation after a report of criminal misconduct against a woman during a May traffic stop. The patrol has refused to release further information about the incident.

Master Trooper Timothy S. Stiwinter: Stiwinter resigned June 25 after being charged by Asheville police with drunken driving and felony hit and run. A trooper since 1999, Stiwinter was arrested after a late-night wreck in which a vehicle ran a red light and hit a car, before leaving the scene. Stiwinter, who was off duty at the time, was later stopped by a police officer, who smelled alcohol on the trooper's breath and noted that he appeared unsteady.

Trooper Anthony Scott: Scott was fired in February. He had been at the home of a Pittsboro lawyer with whom he was having a relationship when her estranged husband showed up, choked her and threatened her with a gun. Scott, who was on duty, failed to intervene.

Trooper Ronald Ezzell Jr.: The patrol dismissed Ezzell, a helicopter pilot and 19-year veteran in February 2009 after he showed a doctored photo of a naked boy with a large penis to a state credit union teller, claiming it was a childhood snapshot of himself. He was in uniform and in a patrol car at the time.(It doesn't get any dumber than this!)

Trooper Shawn C. Houston: Houston, who lives in Granite Falls, was charged in October with cruelty to animals and injury to real property, both misdemeanors, after he trapped his neighbor's 5-month-old kitten and shot it to death. The patrol dismissed him in January.

Trooper Timothy J. White: White, of Salisbury, was fired in June 2009 after he had a drunken sexual encounter with another trooper's wife in the back seat of a car headed home from a Christmas party. The woman's husband was in the front seat at the time. (Which one of the three told?)

Trooper Thomas C. Wetherington: A trooper since 2007, Wetherington was fired in August over lying about the fate of a campaign hat lost by the side of the highway at night."

A quick review of these incidents makes one thing clear, there's an alcohol problem in the Highway Patrol. Is there a problem with sex-related issues?? Check this out from the Charlotte Observer.

"Since 1998, at least 30 members of the patrol have been disciplined or fired for sexual misconduct, including having on-duty sex encounters in and on their patrol cars. During one romp, a trooper inadvertently dropped his state-issued handgun, which was later found by children. He received a five-day suspension.

Trooper Michael Steele Jr. was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for abducting and fondling Hispanic women at traffic stops in Orange County in 2008 and then threatening them with deportation if they told.

Two years ago, the Highway Patrol hired a team of outside consultants to examine its troubled culture.

According to their report, the consultants concluded that the patrol is "an exceedingly macho, pseudo-military culture" where some veteran troopers described sex on the job as 'an expected fringe benefit.'"

Well, enough about booze and sex, in my next post, we will discuss their driving habits.