Causeway cops suspended for mayor traffic stop

Two Lake Ponchartrain Causeway policemen were slapped with suspensions and demotions Friday for failing to test Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price for drunk driving during a controversial traffic stop last month.

“The totality of the facts are clear … these officers were wrong,” Causeway Chief of Police Felix Loicano said. “What should have been was not done.”

Sgt. Chris Dupont, a 10-year veteran of the Causeway Police force, was demoted to corporal and reduced pay accordingly, suspended for three working days, banned from taking his police-issued car home and prohibited from working overtime, Loicano said.

Officer Charlton Dorsett was also suspended without pay for one working day and banned from working overtime or taking his police-issued car home. Dorsett, who’s been on the force for a few months, was placed on probationary period for six months.

The disciplinary actions come a day after a 2 1/2-hour closed door meeting in which the officers explained their reasons for not administering a field sobriety test to Price after the 11:58 p.m. incident April 22.

Police reports indicate Price “bumped” his city-owned Ford Expedition into the northbound tollbooth gate, causing it to break away as designed. He then continued to drive three miles south without his headlights on and, when stopped, admitted to drinking a “couple” beers. Price was mailed a ticket for the gate damage and has since paid for repairs, Loicano said.

But during the review meeting, both officers, given discretion to make arrests or administer a field sobriety test, each said they thought Price wasn’t drunk, Lociano said.

“Dupont said point blank he did not think Mr. Price was intoxicated. He did not think it warranted a field sobriety test. It was not there,” Loicano said.

Also, the typical signs of a drunk driver — slurred speech, disheveled looks or stumbling — did not apply to Price, Loicano said after reviewing a videotaped recording of the traffic stop.

In the tape, not yet made available for public viewing because it is considered evidence and turned over to St. Tammany Parish District Attorney’s Office, Price was neatly dressed and appeared to be coherent and not slurring his words.

“Was he falling down? No. Walking unsteady? No,” Loicano said. “But I wasn’t there to look in his eyes or smell his breath.”

Loicano also backpedaled a previous statement when he said Dupont reported he smelled alcohol on Price’s breath.

“In fact, the officers said the contrary,” Loicano said. “That they did not smell alcohol on Price’s breath.”

He again recanted another statement in which the officers told Price to call someone to pick him up because he was too drunk to drive.

“No. He did that on his own,” Loicano said.

Still, Price’s admission to drinking a few beers, running into a Causeway toll booth and driving without his headlights on, warranted enough “red flags” to issue the test, Loicano said.

Causeway Police guidelines indicate field sobriety tests be given if a driver breaks one or a combination of at least seven guidelines. Price, according to the document, broke at least two during the ordeal.

And while Price was taking heat from constituents, Loicano himself also was the subject of media reports after cell phone records indicated he knew about the accident 10 minutes after it occurred but did not require Dupont or Dorsett to issue a field sobriety test.

On Friday, he said he was in bed asleep and left the testing up to the officer’s discretion.

“I cannot from my bedroom at night tell an officer what to do. I can’t do it,” he said. “I’m not going to do it.”

Yet it was that same discretion that Loicano gave that led the officers to be penalized. When asked how this happened more than a week after reviewing the case history, Loicano said he “strongly believes the flags should have gone off. This thing just didn’t smell right. They should have tested him, and our officers know that.”

The media blitz on the case has led Loicano to implement a new procedure: a 24-hour review of any case with “special occurrences” that could occur from resident complaints, accidents or elected officials being cited.

The new protocol was born after the Metropolitan Crime Commission launched objections May 1 over how the April 22 Price case was handled.

Loican said those urgings by the MCC “helped us improve.”

“No doubt we cannot stop the past, but we must look toward the future,” he said.

The case surrounding Price seems to be yet another thorn in the Mandeville mayor’s side. Long considered a front-runner for the seat of Parish President Kevin Davis, who is term limited, Price has battled numerous public relations disasters in recent months.

Earlier this year, Price was scorned by community members for accepting gifts paid for from a philanthropic fund administered by the Mandeville Police Department.

Shortly thereafter, Price’s talks to disband the police department in lieu of Sheriff’s Office patrols made headlines.