Texas State Trooper Ordered to Get Counseling for Posing With Snoop Dogg
Texas State Trooper Ordered to Get Counseling for Posing With Snoop Dogg
A
Texas state trooper was ordered to get counseling after he posed for a
picture with rapper Snoop Dogg, which the state Department of Public
Safety concluded "reflects poorly on the agency," according to documents
made public Wednesday.
The trooper, Sgt. Billy
L. Spears, was in uniform working at the South by Southwest music and
technology festival in Austin last month when Snoop asked Spears to pose
for a picture with him, according to a letter from Spears' attorney to
the department.
After
the picture appeared on Snoop's Instagram account — with the caption
"Me n my deputy dogg" — a supervisor drove 80 miles round-trip to
deliver the counseling order, which is dated March 24 and was first reported by The Dallas Morning News
"While working a
secondary employment job, Trooper Spears took a photo with a public
figure who has a well-known criminal background including numerous drug
charges," says the order, which Spears' lawyer, Ty Clevenger, made
available Wednesday. "The public figure posted the photo on social media
and it reflects poorly on the agency."
In letters to public
safety officials and prosecutors, Clevenger wrote that, in fact, it was
Snoop's publicist who took the photo, not Spears. And Spears didn't have
a clue about Snoop's long arrest record, the letters said. In an online post Wednesday, Clevenger said that's because, "believe it or not, some folks don't watch TMZ or read People Magazine."
Clevenger argues that
the action was actually an act of retaliation against Spears for having
reported misconduct last year by an officer of a different Texas law
enforcement agency.
"DPS claims that the
counseling forms are not really discipline, therefore the employee has
no right to appeal. Yet those counseling incidents can block a trooper's
chances for promotion or advancement," he wrote.
Referring to another
big-time star who meets the Public Safety Department's definition of "a
public figure who has a well-known criminal background including
numerous drug charges," Clevenger wrote:
"So what's the big deal? Would the DPS hierarchy get so bent out of shape about a picture with Willie Nelson?"
The Department of Public
Safety told the Morning News in a statement late Wednesday afternoon
that it doesn't discuss personnel issues unless they result in
disciplinary action, "and these efforts do not constitute formal
discipline by the department."
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment