Guzman Gone

It appears that Officer Daniel Guzman has been terminated. We spotted a comment earlier today and had our Eyes verify that Officer Guzman had been let go.

If you'll remember, Guzman created a flap when he starred in a short feature by KOB-TV photographer Rick Foley. Officer Guzman arrested the photographer when Foley failed to leave a crime scene. Of course Foley wasn't in the crime scene at the time. At the end of the day, APD took a black eye and all of the charges against the KOB photographer were dropped. (Read about it here.)

At the time the 5th Floor promised to retrain all of the officers on the force including Guzman. Yeah... that's what we thought too. Retraining the entire force to deal with the media more effectively and without handcuffs seems just a little ridiculous. It was also an empty promise designed simply to placate the media. But we digress...

Our Eyes tell us that Officer Guzman was terminated by the IRO on the grounds that he wasn't truthful. Apparently, the IRO insisted that Guzman be terminated despite being cleared by Internal Affairs. The Eyes have it that IA found that Guzman's belt tape supported his story but the IRO insisted on termination.

Our Eyes tell us that under the city ordinance, citizens have the ability to appeal the findings of the IRO, but officers do not. So at least for the time being, Guzman is gone. But don't count on this thing going away. It looks like the APOA is going to take the decision to court... stay tuned.

Dismissed

The Albuquerque Journal is reporting that the case against KOB TV photographer Rick Foley has been dismissed without prejudice (ABQ Journal - Subscription) [hat tip Eye reader]. Judge Benjamin Chavez apparently cited a lack of probable cause as the reason for the case dismissal.

As we've said before, this thing didn't have to go down this way and it was probably not the wisest of moves to arrest a news photographer toting a $50,000 camera recording pictures and sound all at broadcast quality without an absolutely air-tight case. That being said, any disciplinary action should be consistent with discipline received by other officers in similar situations. Punishment should not be meted out in a greater or lesser measure simply because the infraction was caught by a television news camera.

We can't think of a single reason that Officer Guzman should suddenly be placed on leave this past Saturday - even if Chief Schultz really received the IRO report on Friday as he claimed in today's Journal (Subscription). Was Officer Guzman threatened by a wild band of roving news photographers? Was Guzman threatening to arrest every photographer he came in contact with? We hardly think so - which makes his suspension look more like pandering.

(Sidebar)
We were taken to task by a reader who chided us for our original lack of clarity as to the status of Officer Guzman. We indicated that he had been "relieved of duty" which could have been taken to mean that he had been terminated. As far as we know, Officer Guzman is on some kind of leave - whether it's paid or unpaid is currently unclear.
(End Sidebar)

Relieving Guzman of duty smacks of punishment by media or at least because of unwanted media attention. In other words, Guzman seems to be becoming a scapegoat offered up on a silver platter to appease the media. Like it or not, Officer Guzman is entitled to administrative due process and legal due process. Further, the administrative process needs to be fair and consistent regardless of media attention.