Trooper Tipped Off NOPD After ’02 Stop
New Orleans Times-Picayune
A 16-year NOPD veteran has been fired for violating departmental rules by taking an unmarked police car on a joy ride out of state, riding with two “unauthorized civilians” when an Illinois state trooper stopped him for speeding last November, police said.
Sgt. Williams Marks Jr., who was a 1st District detective at the time of the incident, was fired Thursday by Superintendent Eddie Compass on the recommendation of Deputy Chief Warren Riley after a disciplinary hearing last week, officers said.
Marks, who was not authorized to take the car out of state, was stopped for speeding in Illinois by a state trooper, police said. He had two unauthorized civilians in the car -- an unmarked police car assigned to the 1st District detective unit.
The state trooper notified the New Orleans Police Department and an investigation was begun, police said. Marks remained on administrative reassignment after the Nov. 1, 2002, incident until his dismissal, police said.
A police press release cited seven administrative violations that were sustained by the investigation.
They included failure to “adhere” to the law, in a reference to the alleged speeding; untruthfulness; lack of professionalism; abuse of position; disregarding instructions from an authoritative source; transporting civilians against the rules; and violating the department’s take-home-car policy.
Police declined to explain the basis for each of the administrative charges, though some are self-explanatory, officers said.
Compass, in a prepared statement, said “there shall be severe sanctions imposed” when a New Orleans police officer compromises “policies and procedures set forth by this agency” to “ensure total accountability.”
Rafael Goyeneche, director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a nonprofit crime watchdog group, said he believes Compass had no choice but “to establish the integrity of the department. The termination based on the information I had was warranted. You can’t have officers flagrantly disregarding the rules and regulations of the department,” he said. “This was about as blatant a departure from departmental rules as I’ve heard lately.”