San Marcos police officer involved in deadly Lockhart collision in 2020 loses job
San Marcos City Manager Bert Lumbreras said Ryab Hartman’s firing was the result of misconduct related to dereliction of duty and insubordination.
www.statesman.com
The sergeant was involved in an off-duty wreck last year that killed a person. He was reportedly speeding and ran a stop sign and collided with the other vehicle, killing one of the occupants. Also reported that he had an open container of beer and "beer salts" - but tox report says he had no alcohol in his system. He did refuse a field sobriety test.
He was placed on indefinite suspension, which is equivalent to termination.
I'm kinda torn on this one - cops are typically held to higher standards for reason - and it sounds like he fucked up in more ways than one - running the stop sign, speeding which probably contributed to that, and the open container of alcohol. I can see a long suspension without pay being reasonable for those. His tox screen came back no alcohol though - and it wasn't mentioned that he was under the influence of any other substances, so it seems that he wasn't impaired, just maybe impatient. I understand why the survivor wants him fired - emotion and justice.
I don't think the fact that the wreck became a fatal should elevate it to him being fired necessarily either. If he had been driving the speed limit and not had the open container and still hit & killed the person - would that matter?
While I'm sure the agency has policies that cover off duty actions, a grand jury declined to charge the sergeant. He was given a traffic citation for the stop sign violation. A long term unpaid suspension might be reasonable, but I don't think he should've necessarily lost his job, unless this is a continuation of a pattern in his disciplinary record that none of the articles mentions or was privy to. It seems like they're throwing the guy to the wolves of politics. If he'd been on-duty when this happened, I can see firing him for it. But he wasn't working. I generally don't like employers firing people for things that happen when they're not on the clock, and not representing the employer.