Re: Two of Three Cops Fired
Just spoke with Shanna Lopez, whose courage made uncovering that story possible. All things going well, she’s slated to start again at the police academy next week. She told me last year that she wanted vindication so her son, Micah, would see that the good guys do come out on top sometimes. For once, that looks to be happening. Oh, and Officer Nick Novello, who came forward and gave us a lot of the background information for the story and wasn’t afraid to be named, is apparently going to be part of a story on Fox 4 tonight. So tune in. (Photo by Kevin Hunter Marple)
9 Comments to “Re: Two of Three Cops Fired”
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The story said the fired officers were hired in 1978….what month? They may well have their 30 years in and still get their pension. Did Kunkle wait until the day after their anniversay to fire them? It would be interesting to know that little fact.
Stecker 4/30/1987
Schoelen 8/14/1978
Nelson 4/3/1978
That Trey Garrison is all about the customer service.
So Shanna has to go through the academy all over again?
She was cut during her training phase and it’s been almost a year and a half (October 2006), so she has to start at the beginning. But the nice thing is, her record has been scrubbed.
Wow, so Nelson was 8 days away from a full pension? (if the comments of Backer are accurate as to DPD pension plans)
Note to Trey - Watch. Your. Back.
Many PD pension plans back in the 70’s were just 20 years. In the late 70’s and early 80’s plans started migrating towards 30 years. (They were losing their best people at age 41.) This meant if you were under a 20 year plan for 2/3 (67% for those in Rio Linda), you could opt to work for 25 years and get 75%, or 30 years at 100%. Those hired after a certain date - and my memory fails me as to what date it is - were automatically put on a 30 year pension at less than the 100% we were offered. These fired officers could possibly be under the hybrid plan and have some pension that can’t be touched. I know of officers that went to prison for a felony conviction and still received a duly earned pension.
I know these things b/c I was a Shreveport Policeman from ‘74 to ‘88 and was under those options, but I got a wild hair I could do something better with my life and left public service. Best economical decision I ever made - But NOTHING has ever been as much fun as police work.
Trey, thanks for the follow-up. Two words that I hope you don’t get personally familiar with: pretext stop.
Nick Novello is badass. I wish more cops were like him.