Cop Fired For Speeding 143 MPH While Drunk Gets Job Back

Cop Fired For Speeding 143 MPH While Drunk Gets Job Back
Manager Of Safety Fighting Decision To Overturn Firing Of Derrick Saunders
Written By Kim Ngan Nguyen, Web Editor

POSTED: 6:03 pm MDT May 22, 2012
UPDATED: 6:21 pm MDT May 22, 2012


DENVER -- The Civil Service Commission has overturned a decision to fire a Denver cop who admitted to speeding while intoxicated. It is a decision Denver's manager of safety is fighting to overturn.

Officer Derrick Saunders was sentenced to five days in jail after pleading guilty to charges he was drunk and driving 143 mph in a 55 mph zone on June 17, 2010.

The manager of safety fired Saunders last December. Saunders appealed, arguing his termination was unfair and excessive.

Now a panel of hearing officers is saying the drinking and speeding didn't warrant termination, which the manager of safety disagrees with.

Manager of Safety Alex Martinez said the decision to overturn Saunders' dismissal "deprives the manager of the authority to impose reasonable discipline and disrespects the efforts of the many honorable law-abiding Denver police officers to maintain high standards of professionalism."

"We would never hire someone as a law enforcement officer who had engaged in this behavior and should not be required by hearing officers to continue to employ someone as an officer with this proven criminal conduct, " Martinez added.

Saunders' termination was overruled based on "discretion and precedence."

The Civil Service Commission said the Denver manager of safety "failed to prove any extraordinary aggravation" and "also failed to consider (Saunders') mitigating factors."

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