Feb. 11--A Massachusetts state trooper who failed to perform a field sobriety test or arrest an allegedly drunk off-duty Orleans police officer driving on Route 6 violated departmental rules, according to a state police spokesman.
The state police recently completed an internal investigation into the actions of Trooper Steven Culver on the night of March 6 when he stopped Orleans officer Travis Tebbetts in South Dennis after reports of erratic driving. The investigation was started in June after the Times made a public records request for documents related to the incident.
"We initiated a complaint for violations of rules and regulations and/or policy and procedures, and sustained it," state police spokesman David Procopio wrote about Culver in an email Friday.
He said he could not elaborate on the specific charges. He said the disciplinary phase had not been completed and that Culver could seek a hearing before a state police trial board if he and the department couldn't reach agreement on what discipline would be imposed.
The Times has requested a copy of the state police internal investigation, but the department has not complied. Procopio did not respond to a question about the status of the request.
On March 6, an off-duty Yarmouth police officer, Gordon Gibbons, first spotted Tebbetts driving highly erratically down Station Avenue in South Yarmouth, according to an internal affairs investigation conducted by the Orleans police. Gibbons, who was communicating with local police and Culver, followed Tebbetts onto Route 6, off at exit 9 onto Route 134, and watched him pull a U-turn and go back onto Route 6 where Culver, who had been alerted by police dispatchers, stopped him, the report said.
In his report to the Yarmouth police, Gibbons wrote that Culver had told him Tebbetts admitted to having eight beers and seemed extremely intoxicated. Culver also told Orleans Sgt. Matthew Watts, the shift supervisor, that Tebbetts was drunk, according to the Orleans internal affairs report. Culver then asked Watts to arrange for a ride home for Tebbetts because the officer's vehicle was being towed, the report said.
Orleans Police Chief Jeffrey Roy told the Times that no field sobriety test was performed on his officer. No breath-alcohol test was done because Tebbetts wasn't arrested.
Orleans Deputy Chief Scott MacDonald wrote in the Orleans report that Culver said there was no probable cause to perform the field sobriety tests or to arrest Tebbetts for driving while under the influence. Lawyers interviewed by the Times said to insist on a field sobriety test, Culver only needed a reasonable suspicion that Tebbetts was drunk.
The only reference to incident in the state police log for March 6 calls it a "disabled vehicle."
Tebbetts was suspended without pay for five days, removed from the promotion list for two years and received counseling.
He told the Times back in September that he accepted his punishment. He expressed remorse and said the counseling had yielded positive results.
Copyright 2012 - Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
