Saturday, February 28, 1998
Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Author: David Hanners - staff writer
Contact:  http://www.pioneerplanet.com/

OFFICER FIRED FOR MARIJUANA USE ADMITS 'MISTAKE'

*But St. Paul sergeant says penalty too harsh, will appeal termination

It was perhaps an incongruous scene: Dakota County sheriff's deputies
secretly picking up - and then carefully sorting through - the garbage
tossed by a decorated St. Paul police detective.

But the deputies claimed they found enough evidence in two searches of St.
Paul Police Sgt. Cregg Brackman's garbage to corroborate an informant's
story that Brackman had smoked marijuana.

On Friday, Brackman, of St. Paul, admitted he had made "a mistake" but
complained that his firing Tuesday by Police Chief William Finney was too
harsh and that he and his union planned to appeal to get his job back.

"Everybody's human, and people make mistakes," said Brackman, 47, a 21-year
veteran of the department.  "I'm not mini- mizing mine by any means, but
when you do make a mistake, it's important that you stand up and are honest
about them and deal with those consequences."

Finney has said that state privacy laws prevent him from discussing the case
until the officer's appeals are exhausted.  But others were talking.

"Taking someone's job for an error in judgment seems to be quite a harsh
punish- ment," said Patrick Finnegan, president of the St. Paul Police
Federation, the union that represents the city's police force.  "It
obviously didn't affect his job performance, not that we can see."

Brackman's fellow officers across the state named him Minnesota's sex crimes
investigator of the year last year.  He had played a key role in piecing
together the case against suspected serial rapist Tony Dejuan Jackson, who
is on trial in Washington County on the first of four rape charges.

Brackman was fired after he allegedly failed a urinalysis that tested for
marijuana. The testing was not random; rather, two police supervisors (as
required by depart- ment procedures) requested the test after learning that
Brackman may have smoked marijuana.

That information came from a woman who had been arrested in Dakota County on
drug charges.  In an apparent attempt to get a reduced charge, she told
authorities that she had seen Brackman smoking marijuana.

Dakota County Sheriff Don Gudmundson said that after his department
questioned the woman, deputies decided to do a "garbage pull" at Brackman's
St. Paul home.

"We did a garbage pull.  We take your garbage," said Gudmundson.  "We did it
twice.  What the issue is there is that people who use narcotics put
different things in the garbage.  You don't have a right to privacy for your
garbage, according to the U.S. Supreme Court."

Officers searched the garbage and allegedly found enough evidence to confirm
the informant's story, but not enough for probable cause for a felony search
warrant to search Brackman's home, Gudmundson said.

"You need more than a couple of stems and seeds or a dope pipe to get a
search warrant," the sheriff said.  "You're not going to get a search
warrant on that.  There was not enough."

There was enough to turn the information over to the St. Paul Police
Department's internal affairs unit, however.  Following their inquiry,
Finney fired Brackman.

Brackman said Friday that while he had made a mistake, he believed he should
get another chance.  He said he believes he has a good appeal.

"I would say that dealing with what I was dealing with as a cop, I've had a
lot of high-profile cases, and I do not want one isolated mistake to cause
problems with putting away people that need to be put away," he said.

"I'm very good at what I do because I care a lot about my victims," he
said.  "For that matter, I've got suspects who still call me and thank me
for being fair and honest.  The biggest thing in my life has been my truth
and integrity.  And if that means being honest and getting slammed for it,
then that's what it means.  But I think that's important for the kids out
there to know that when you make a mistake, you've got to admit it and stand
up for it."

John Laux, executive director of the state's Board of Peace Officer
Standards and Training, said administrators' responses to police officers
accused of drug law violations vary with the circumstance.

"If you're caught in a criminal situation, there's not a lot I can do for
you," said Laux, a former Minneapolis chief of police.  "But if you've got a
drug problem, we'll offer you treatment. We'll take you to a chemical
dependency program and treat whatever it is.  Whether you're a cop or an
automobile assembly line person or a doctor or whatever else, you've usually
got to hit rock bottom first before you get any help.

"Obviously, the red flag didn't go up on this guy," said Laux.  "He was the
sex crimes investigator of the year last year."

Laux said he didn't believe there was a big problem with peace officers
using drugs or smoking marijuana in Minnesota.  "I don't know if it's the
big undetected problem that's going on out there and we're unaware of it. 
We don't have mandatory random drug screening."

Police unions have resisted such screening, but have permitted testing if
there is a reasonable suspicion that the officer is using or has used
drugs.  But there are also financial issues for police administrators, Laux
said.

"When you do a drug screen, what do you screen for?" he said.  "The more you
screen for, the more expensive the lab analysis is. Some of these screens
can be $250, $350. They're not going to run a $300 drug screen on all of
their people.  They can't afford it."

Phil Willkie, formerly of the executive board of the Grassroots Party, an
organization advocating legalization of marijuana, said more people smoke
marijuana than most know.

"It's outrageous that this man's career was ruined because of his personal
life," said Willkie.  "It didn't seem to affect his good work.  It's really
a tragedy.  And meanwhile, someone on the force who might be an alcoholic
can stay on the force because alcohol is legal."

Brackman said he will wait for the appeal to run its course, but in the
interim, he's not sure what he'll do other than look for work.

What does a sex crimes investigator do? Good question," he said.  "It's a
pretty specialized field.  I don't know right now."