Mixed record for officer accused of driving drunk

FREMONT – The city police officer charged with causing a crash while drunk last month has a mixed record, with commendations for his work and verbal reprimands.

Two of Officer George Dorsey’s supervising officers thought so highly of him that they recommended he be promoted to detective in 2010.

Dorsey did not become a detective but became department’s K-9 handler. He is on paid leave while the investigation into the Feb. 17 crash is pending.

The News-Messenger obtained Dorsey’s personnel file through a public records request. He has worked for the police department since 2001.

Dorsey was charged with drunken driving and failure to yield at a stop sign. He left the scene and then called a supervisor to report what happened.

The city has asked the court to appoint a special prosecutor, who will review the situation and determine if more charges are warranted. The case is pending in Fremont Municipal Court, and no hearing dates have been set.

In recent years, reprimands against Dorsey involved him being late for work five times from 2010 to 2012.

He received verbal counseling — verbal counseling is documented — after he left his shotgun in his police cruiser, which was locked, overnight in 2010. Department policy is not to leave shotguns in the cruisers.

Dorsey’s file also includes letters of commendation from superior officers — one as recent as January — and a few thank-you letters and notes from the public for his work. He won an award in 2005 from TASER International for helping to stun a man involved in a standoff, which kept officers from having to shoot him.

In 2004 and 2006, Dorsey received verbal counseling for how to properly handle evidence after he had two separate issues where evidence was not properly logged.

In the 2006 incident, he investigated a crash where a woman was hit by a car on Stone Street.

The woman was taken to the hospital, and Dorsey took her purse, which contained a large knife, and some items of clothing, according to his file. Those items were still in his patrol car the next day, according to his file.

A sergeant told Dorsey all items should have been logged into evidence as soon as possible.

During the 2004 incident, Dorsey arrested a juvenile at Fremont Middle School after finding two packages of marijuana and a pack of cigarettes.

Dorsey did not enter evidence items into the department’s computer, so there was no evidence report with them, according to his file. Instead, he left them in the records room, and the police chief found them and had a sergeant log them into evidence.

Dorsey also caused minor damage to his police cruiser in 2006 when he hit rock and caused a non-injury crash in his cruiser in 2004.

He also was verbally counseled after he failed to show up for two different trials in 2003 in Fremont Municipal Court.

There is only one personnel evaluation in the file, and completed in 2002. Dorsey received all “meets standards” and “exceeds standards” marks.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM