An Aurora police officer who was on responsibility and drunk when he handed out whereas driving his division automotive in 2019 has been promoted.
Nathan Meier was promoted to detective on Dec. 24 after testing for the publish in November, division spokesman Joe Moylan mentioned. The place pays $110,399, a $10,000 increase from his earlier job.
The promotion, first reported by CBS4, comes practically 4 years after Meier’s drunken-driving incident, which introduced worldwide consideration to the division in addition to condemnation of how the division’s management dealt with the case. The controversy marred the ultimate months of former Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz’s tenure and prompted his second-in-command to resign his plans to function interim police chief and retire as a substitute.
Final 12 months, Meier participated in a aggressive course of outlined by the Civil Service Fee, which oversees hiring, firing and promotions within the division, Moylan mentioned.
He was required by the fee’s guidelines to attend two years after being demoted to strive for a promotion.
Meier was armed and on responsibility on March 29, 2019, when he handed out whereas driving the unmarked department-issued automotive on East Mississippi Avenue close to Buckley Air Power Base. The automotive was operating and in gear with Meier’s foot on the brake.
Meier later instructed inner investigators that he was blackout drunk on the time.
He was demoted and suspended with out pay after Metz overruled an inner investigation that beneficial Meier be fired. Aurora police leaders didn’t pursue a legal investigation of Meier’s drunken driving regardless of a number of officers on the scene reporting that they smelled alcohol on Meier and within the automotive.
Prosecutors mentioned they had been by no means alerted to the incident and expressed frustration that Aurora police did not conduct an investigation. An exterior evaluation of the incident discovered police management made “important errors of judgment” at practically each stage.
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