A Utah state trooper is expected to be terminated from her position after it was revealed she had been dishonest about DUI arrests in court.
We first brought you this story on Oct. 19 when she was initially believed to have provided inconsistent information concerning the laboratory results and her arrest reports. An internal memo brought the situation to light in May of 2010, but nothing had been investigated until this year.
According to investigations, her reports claimed many suspects that had been arrested for DUI were not under the influence at all or only had slight traces of legal drugs in their systems. More than half of 20 suspects had been arrested with illegal levels of intoxication.
A fellow officer stated the trooper had not been disciplined regarding her dishonesty, but did not comment on how she was approached about the matter. However, the trooper had been demoted for a time, but the highway patrol would not comment on the demotion.
Though the trooper has been told she will lose her job, her attorney is asking for her to be relocated or assigned to a different area because she wants to keep being employed in the department. In addition, a judge has placed her responsible for causing an unfavorable outlook of the highway patrol and said she cannot testify in court cases.
She is appealing the decision for her termination and is waiting to schedule a meeting with the state commissioner of public safety before being allowed to have a hearing before an administrative board.
The trooper’s actions caused surprise within the department, as she had been a former Trooper of the Year and had a good reputation.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune, “Utah officials move to fire controversial trooper Lisa Steed,” Nate Carlisle, Nov. 7, 2012
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