Mickelesko’s conduct was ‘unbecoming’, Rush supervisors say.
By Sarah Fulton, The Morning Call (Allentown, Penn.)
Rush Township, Penn. supervisors on Friday fired a police officer who shot a family’s pet schnauzer, then took from township offices tapes of his 911 telephone calls during the incident.
Supervisors Marion Lazur and Frank Berleth said that even after multiple hearings, the decision to fire officer Scott Mickelesko was difficult.
But they determined Mickelesko was ''negligent in performing his duty and committed conduct unbecoming of a police officer’’ when on Jan. 10 he shot and killed Nancy Meiser’s dog, Whiskers, Lazur said.
Mickelesko claimed a motorist hit the dog on Fairview Road near Route 309 and that he responded and shot the dog for humanitarian reasons.
A neighbor found the dog’s body along the road two days after it was shot.
But Mickelesko has been criticized for not trying to find the dog’s owner before the shooting, and the recordings showed Mickelesko three times incorrectly read the dog’s license number to the Schuylkill County 911 center.
Mickelesko said he later removed copies of the recordings from the township Police Department with permission from Chief Edward Carroll, who has been on sick leave since January, to hear the mistake and prepare his defense.
The tapes were ''not his to remove from the possession of the township,’' Lazur said. He said removing the tapes interfered with the township’s investigation into the matter.
''The evidence was absolutely overwhelming,’' said
Meiser’s attorney, Melissa Rudas. ''We’re very happy that theydid the right thing.’'
Neither Mickelesko nor Meiser were at Friday’s meeting. Both have previously declined to comment.
Berleth said if Mickelesko had only shown some remorse and testified on his own behalf, the outcome of the investigation could have been different.
''The thing that I found heart-wrenching the most was the laughter S on the tape,’' Supervisor William Sanchez Jr. said.
Sanchez was referring to a part of the tape in which he said Mickelesko can be heard laughing with a 911 center dispatcher about shooting the dog.
Sanchez recused himself from the investigation since he had witnessed and photographed the dead dog and was asked to testify to what he saw.
An autopsy performed by county pathologist Richard Bindie unofficially determined the dog had no injuries or trauma consistent with being hit by a car. An official copy of the autopsy report has not been made public.
Mickelesko was suspended without pay Jan. 29 for shooting the dog, then suspended again Feb. 19 for taking the recordings. He was the acting officer-in-charge until his suspension.
Officer Robert Romanick has since been appointed and remains officer-in-charge.