Ex-police officer’s firing after drunken gun-pulling upheld on appeal

The former Little Rock police officer fired for pulling a gun in a drunken bar fight in Northwest Arkansas will remain fired after a day-long appeal hearing Thursday.

Jeffrey Harris, 45, who was fired in September for six departmental policy and regulation violations from the April 2013 fight that involved bikers, hard alcohol and another law enforcement official told the Little Rock Civil Service Commission that he is disgusted by his own drunken actions, but he pleaded for his job.

“I’ve been in law enforcement for 20 years and always did the right thing,” Harris said. “I made bad mistakes … I’ve embarrassed myself, my family, I’ve embarrassed the department, I’ve ruined my life.”

At the end of the hearing, the five commissioners expressed sympathy for Harris who, according to department records, had never had a serious reprimand or citizen complaint in a career that started in North Carolina and included a 15-year run with the Arkansas State Police.

But the commission voted unanimously to uphold Police Chief Stuart Thomas’ decision to fire Harris for, among other infractions, untruthfulness, public intoxication, conduct unbecoming an officer and violating the department’s use of force policy that states “officers may draw or display firearms when there is a threat or reasonable belief that there is a threat to life.”

Harris’ attorney, Bill James, said Thursday evening that Harris plans to appeal the commission’s ruling to circuit court next week.

Most of the facts of the bar fight, and the subsequent scene outside of the bar with Fayetteville police, were not disputed by either side.

Harris said that while on extended leave after a concussion and injured hand from a car crash, he met his son and a friend, Rex Frederick, who was a narcotics task force investigator based out of the Prairie Grove Police Department.

Harris and Frederick drank about eight beers, according to investigators, and then had Harris’ son, who was sober, drive them to Billy’s Bar in Fayetteville, which is owned by cousins of Harris.

The group took a seat near a pool table, which was 10 feet or 15 feet away from a table of members of the Polecat biker club, who were all “sporting their colors,” according to internal investigators.

The officers continued to drink, and tensions escalated when the bikers were joined by a pair of “Outlaws” - a bike club known for its criminality and for being, as Harris put it, the “baddest of the bad.”

According to lead investigator Sgt. James Stephens, the bikers were intimidated by the officers. Harris claims that once his cousin told the bikers that the table nearby were cops, the bikers did the intimidating.

At one point, Harris bought three shots of Jagermeister, took one, and then stopped at the bikers’ table and treated the only two women with the bikers to the shots.

Harris then took a seat at the table next to the leader of the group. Harris said he wanted to clear the air and make sure everyone had a good time but was crudely rebuked.

According to investigators, the bikers said Harris egged them on before stepping away with a smug smile.

Harris said that while the bikers were leaving, he got into an altercation with his cousin, who works at the bar, and that she hit him with a beer bottle. By the time he realized what had happened, Frederick was getting jumped by a group of people.

Surveillance video shows that Frederick started the fight by pushing an employee who made a comment about the officers chasing away the bar’s business.

A “scrum” formed around Frederick, who was struggling on the ground with another man. Harris, unable to break up the crowd, pulled his gun.

The people in the scrum threw up their hands while others in the bar dived under tables, and one couple took refuge in the bar’s walk-in cooler.

Harris then held the group off at gunpoint, waving it around and backing out of the bar with the others, his gun still set on the crowd.

Thomas said that he could entertain the argument for needing to draw a weapon to disperse a crowd if someone was being beaten, but he said the “manner” of Harris’ handling of the gun was “reckless” and deplorable.

“It was unprofessional and embarrassing,” Thomas said. “It is frightening, absolutely frightening what could have happened in that bar … it is unimaginable.”

During the hearing, Harris defended pulling his weapon because, at the time, he thought his friend’s life was in danger. The way he handled the gun after, he said, was a matter of “scanning,” making sure he wasn’t attacked by someone out of his vision.

Thomas said the former officer’s behavior when police arrived was bad.

Harris had to be put into a Fayetteville police car twice after he continued to “mean mug” bikers and bar staff, curse, yell and drop a racial epithet.

One Fayetteville officer, losing patience with an intoxicated Harris, said:

“Get your a * * in the car! … I’m tired of your sh * * … I don’t care if it’s your mom, get your a * * in the car,” the officer exclaimed in a recording of the event.

Without provocation, and no black people around, Harris announced, “I deal with n * * * * * s like that at [Little Rock] all the time.”

Harris said he was disgusted by his behavior and said it was a mix of fear, adrenaline and alcohol that caused him to act out.

Harris was arrested in August and charged with aggravated assault. In February, he pleaded no contest to two lesser charges and was given probation and a suspended sentence.

Since then, he’s been working jobs as a janitor and security guard.

“I’m not here for back pay. I’m here for my career,” Harris said. “[The drunk man on the screen], it’s not me. … It’s not about money. I’ve been punished. Been humbled … I have more to offer. I’m a police officer.”

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/25/2014

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