Rocky Ford Police Chief Mickey Bethel knew that questions would be raised when his son, Justin, who is an officer in his department, ran into a pickup truck Saturday.
So Bethel required him to take a breathalyzer test, he said Monday. “We made him do it as a department and he blew zero, and we videotaped that because we knew that people would be yelling about was he drunk?”
At the department’s request, the Colorado State Patrol, which responded to the 5 p.m. accident Saturday at 10th and Sycamore streets, witnessed the test, Bethel said.
The Patrol is investigating the accident,Trooper Nate Reid, patrol spokesman, said. He said he didn’t know if anyone from the CSP witnessed the breathalyzer test.
“Officer Justin Bethel was awarded for the most felony arrests this last quarter. The recent accident was just that, an accident and no report of wrong doing was found other than not yielding to traffic.
Justin Bethel wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, a violation of departmental policy. He will receive a one-day suspension without pay for violating that policy, Bethel said.
Bethel said departments around the country are under scrutiny and he wants oversight of his own to be transparent.
Bethel’s department has attracted negative attention recently for hiring officers who racked up troubled records while serving in other jurisdictions.
found that at least four of Rocky Ford’s 10 officers have had problems in previous law-enforcement jobs or had criminal convictions that might have kept them from being hired at bigger departments.
Justin Bethel has criminal convictions, some when he was a juvenile, for prohibited use of a gun while drunk, careless driving, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while ability impaired.
Bethel said he did not hire his son, who committed most of his offenses when he was younger. “He was a juvenile. People keep bringing it up and it was when he was a teenager.”
The accident happened when Justin Bethel was driving a patrol vehicle and failed to yield the right of way.
When the airbag deployed, he sustained minor injuries, and was taken to Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta, where he took the breathalyzer test.
The driver of the other vehicle wasn’t injured.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or @dpmcghee
