ST. GEORGE, Missouri (AP) – A police sergeant whose berating of a driver was captured on videotape has been fired.
Aldermen in the town of St. George, a St. Louis suburb, voted 5-0 in a closed meeting Monday to fire Sgt. James Kuehnlein. Notice of the firing was posted Wednesday at City Hall.
Kuehnlein’s attorney, Travis L. Noble, said the officer received a letter Thursday detailing the reasons for his firing. Noble said he would review the letter with Kuehnlein before deciding on a course of action.
Brett Darrow, 20, had a video recorder inside his car when Kuehnlein approached him in a commuter lot in the early hours of September 7.
In a video that was widely viewed on the Internet, Kuehnlein is heard taunting and threatening Darrow, sometimes shouting and using profanity.
“It’s what I wanted the whole time,” Darrow told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The conduct was not forgivable.”
Police Chief Scott Uhrig said he recommended that Kuehnlein be fired based both on his language in the tape and because he violated department policy when he failed to tape the encounter himself with his police car’s camera
that guy is my hero ive been harassed many times by cops(not to this much extent) but never had any proof to do anything about it just fines to pay even had a cop threaten to hit me once that was a good night haha
ST. GEORGE, Mo. — An attorney hired by the St. George police officer caught on tape berating a St. Louis driver said Wednesday that the motorist lures police officers into aggressive behavior.
“This is clearly a case where this young man is baiting police officers,” attorney Travis L. Noble said. “This isn’t someone who just happened upon this.”
Brett Darrow, 20, posted a video on the Internet of Sgt. James Kuehnlein threatening him as he sat in his car in a commuter parking lot last week. The clip has sparked national attention and local controversy.
It wasn’t the first time Darrow captured interaction with police and posted it online.
Late last year, Darrow approached a police checkpoint with his in-car camera rolling. When the officer asked where he was going, he replied, “I don’t wish to discuss my personal life with you, officer.”
The officer ordered him out of the car, and the two argued.
Some people, including police officers, say Darrow makes a habit of baiting cops. St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig said Kuehnlein’s behavior was out of line but questioned why Darrow’s car is decked out with scanners and a radar detector in addition to the camera.
Darrow said, “They call me ‘video boy’” on a local police Internet forum. But he denies he’s trying to entrap officers.
“They think I’m out to get them, but they’re stopping me,” Darrow said.
He said he had a run-in with an off-duty St. Louis police officer two years ago and was arrested on suspicion of assault. The case was later dismissed. Months later, he installed a video camera in his car.
“I just want to even the playing field,” he said.
Noble said he agrees that Kuehnlein’s initial reaction was aggressive but said the officer was likely trying to gain control over what he perceived to be a suspicious situation.
“Apparently he knows how officers operate,” Noble added, referring to Darrow. “He drives past a cop, pulls into an empty lot, turns off the lights and waits. That is absolutely going to draw the attention of the officer.”
good… and I hope he keeps doing it again and again and again… the more he gets fired the better! You cant even get into a debate with an officer without him threatning to cite you for disorderly conduct. They think they own the world…
ok… well ill give u the benefit of the doubt and say 89% of them are stright pigs… worthless in my opnion, because they are all hyprocrits, its ok when all the local police in my area come out to the same bars and get wasted and drive home, but yet none of them ever get DUI’s :dunno: go figure. Its all corrupt in my little area where I live… drives me crazy. If you are a police officer and you abuse your power, I think the penalitys should be way worse than just getting fired. You have the power to ruin someones life… but if you mess up, you just loose your job.