Police Officer Fired for MySpace Page

Joshua Cromer, a Lexington, Kentucky, police officer was suspended nearly a year ago for comments and pictures on his MySpace page related to his arrest of country music singer, John Michael Montgomery, for DUI. According to Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), John Michael Montgomery was arrested for driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance. The article also notes two loaded handguns were found in his car at the time of arrest and the controlled substance was identified as Endocet. Wikipedia further states that John Michael Montgomery's lawyer said Mr. Montgomery had a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon although it was not on his person at the time.

Endo Pharmaceuticals indicates that Endocet contains oxycodone and is used for the relief of moderate to moderately severe pain and is a Schedule II controlled substance. The Endocet pamphlet reads "Oxycodone can produce drug dependence of the morphine type and, therefore, has the potential for being abused." Other examples of Schedule II controlled substances are cocaine, Ritalin, PCP, and opium.

Five other Lexington officers were also punished for their MySpace postings but have since been returned to duty. The Cromer webpage included discussion of his arrest of John Michael Montgomery, others congratulating him on the arrest, and someone posted a doctored photo of Cromer supposedly standing with John Michael Montgomery. The other officers had blogs and postings venting about their jobs and pictures of police badges and cruisers, as well as pictures of officers in uniform.

Finally, Cromer was given his hearing on February 20th before the Lexington Urban County Council. It started at around 5:00 p.m. and lasted for eight hours, culminating in the firing of Joshua Cromer. According to Lexington Herald-Leader staff writer Steve Lannen, "They charged Cromer with unbecoming conduct, dishonesty and insubordination for acts including not only the Myspace.com comments, but also that he took a picture of John Michael Montgomery's suspended driver's license and shared it with other people and never logged audio recordings from Montgomery's arrest into evidence."

Debate continues as to whether or not the city violated the state's law sometimes referred to as the Policeman's Bill of Rights. According to KRS 15.520(1)(h)(8), "Any police officer suspended with or without pay who is not given a hearing as provided by this section within sixty (60) days of any charge being filed, the charge then shall be dismissed with prejudice and not be considered by any hearing authority and the officer shall be reinstated with full back pay and benefits..."

The city counters that they did not technically charge Cromer until December of 2006 even though he has been suspended since March of 2006 (an election year) and that the parties agreed to the delayed hearing date in February of 2007.

KRS 15.520 also allows for an accused officer to contest the results of the hearing by bringing action in the Circuit Court subject to appeal by the Kentucky Court of Appeals.