How did Colorado cop – found in patrol car drunk over 5 times legal limit – walk free?

A Colorado police officer accused of being drunk in a patrol car at five times the legal limit won’t be charged with a crime, prosecutors say.

In March, Aurora Police Department officer Nate Meier was found passed out in an unmarked patrol car in the middle of a road, KGMH reported. He was on duty and carrying a firearm, the Denver TV station reported.

First responders couldn’t wake up Meier and had to break out the glass of his car to pull him out, KUSA reported. Police officers at the scene wrote in reports that they smelled alcohol on Meier’s breath, KUSA reported.

He was taken to the hospital.

Here is video of the incident obtained by The Denver Post.

Internal affairs investigation of Nate Meier

Deputy Chief Paul O’Keefe initially sent a police officer to the hospital to investigate the case as a DUI but later decided to treat it as a medical event, The Denver Post reported. Prosecutors found that multiple people in the police department’s command staff had a part in the decision, the newspaper reported.

An internal affairs investigation later revealed medical records showing that Meier’s blood-alcohol content was .43 — over five times the legal limit of .08%, The Denver Post reported. During the investigation, Meier said he went home to drink vodka during his shift, KUSA reported.

Prosecutors did not learn of the case until KCNC-TV reported on it in December, The Denver Post said.

“It is our opinion that there was probable cause to seek a sample of blood from Meier,” the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office wrote in a letter about its decision, the newspaper reported. “Had anyone from (Aurora Police Department) called us, as they routinely do, to discuss whether probable cause existed, we would have told them we believed it did. No such call was made.”

What are Garrity Rights?

But why couldn’t prosecutors use evidence from the internal affairs investigation?

In a news conference Thursday, District Attorney George Brauchler says his office was restricted by Garrity Rights, a court decision that protects public employees from incriminating themselves in an internal affairs investigation.

If a police officer is required to share information during an internal investigation about the officer’s own misconduct under threat of discipline, that evidence is not permissible in the prosecution of a criminal case because it’s not considered to be voluntarily provided, Brauchler said.

That means the blood-alcohol content and Meier’s own admission to drinking from a bottle of vodka can’t be used, Brauchler said.

“The consequence for violating Garrity is the dismissal of the case by the judge,” Brauchler said.

Additionally, federal and state laws regarding medical privacy prevented prosecutors from obtaining Meier’s medical records, Brauchler said.

Fallout at the Aurora Police Department

On the same day that prosecutors announced no charges will be brought against Meier, Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson opened an investigation into O’Keefe’s decision not to investigate the case as a DUI, KCNC reported.

O’Keefe retired within hours, essentially “scuttling” the investigation, KCNC reported.

Wilson said the police department will investigate possible criminal wrongdoing involving drugs or alcohol first as a crime and then administratively, KDVR reported.

“This has destroyed our reputation,” Wilson said, according to KCNC.

Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly said the police department “got it wrong,” according to KCNC.

“There were questionable decisions made at the scene that failed our residents, failed our many hard-working police officers, and failed our city,” Twombly said, according to KCNC.

Meier was demoted and suspended without pay after the incident, but he kept his job, The Denver Post reported. The police department told ABC News that Meier is still employed in a “non-enforcement capacity.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 12:50 PM with the headline "How did Colorado cop – found in patrol car drunk over 5 times legal limit – walk free?."