Corona Officer Requests Demotion, Traces Drinking Problem to Rank : CORONA NORCO

A Corona police lieutenant, charged last week with drunk driving, has asked to be demoted to detective, saying the stress of eight years in supervisory positions precipitated his drinking problem.

“I admit I’m in bad shape,” the officer, David Berkley, said in an interview Thursday, “but I am not a quitter.”

Berkley, 43, was arrested Jan. 17 on suspicion of drunk driving after his car rear-ended another on 7th Street in Corona. The 15-year member of the Corona police force requested the demotion the next day.

The Police Department will not take disciplinary action against Berkley, said Sam Lowery, acting police chief. “His request was honored, and we felt that was sufficient.”

The demotion, effective Monday, will reduce Berkley’s salary by about $400 a month, Lowery said. He held the rank of lieutenant for two years before taking an administrative leave of absence this week.

“I talked to Chief Lowery,” Berkley said. “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a (drinking) problem because I’m not what I want to be.’ . . .

“I was a damn good patrolman, and I’ve got the record to back that up. I was a damn good detective, and I’ve got the record to back that up. I made sergeant through proper testing, and about three months after I made sergeant, I thought, ‘What am I doing here?’ . . .

“A position for lieutenants came open. I tested. I succeeded. Also during this time I developed--from the time I became a sergeant--a drinking problem.”

Berkley told police administrators several times he did not enjoy his supervisory role, he said.

“I was told, basically, that I was needed as a supervisor and so, therefore, I guess my own ego --whatever--I accepted it,” Berkley said. “Now I realize that . . . for me, I needed to be part of the working group of policemen that go out and catch crooks.”

Last week’s traffic collision convinced Berkley that he had to take action to straighten out his life, he said. “I (also) realized I had a new administration” that would accept “an important value. That is the value for a person to assess his own needs.”

Berkley still faces a misdemeanor drunk-driving charge and is scheduled Wednesday in Corona Municipal Court, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Stuart Glickman. “He is going through the courts as a first-offense drunk driver, the same as anyone else.”

Berkley’s driving record shows no previous violations, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

A first drunk-driving conviction usually carries a penalty of three years’ probation, a $673 fine, required participation in a drivers’ course and a 90-day suspension of driving not related to work or medical treatment, Glickman said.

That sentence would not affect Berkley’s function as a police officer, Glickman noted.

“I have no problem with any problem Berkley may have at the detective level,” Lowery said. “. . . If I felt that he couldn’t do the job, I might have had to take more action. But I don’t see that it affected his ability to act as an investigator.”

The collision that prompted the drunk-driving charge caused no injuries and only minor damage to the two cars involved, said Police Capt. Jim Valle. The automobile Berkley hit had been pulled over to park when the off-duty lieutenant’s car bumped its left rear fender.

“I think, probably, this (alcoholism) affects a lot of other policemen,” Berkley said.

His voluntary demotion is more severe than any discipline the department would have been likely to impose, said Capt. John Dalzell. He would not specify what the penalty might have been, however.

“There’s not a hard-and-fast written rule,” Dalzell said. “We look at cases and the circumstances on an individual basis.”

The loss of income will hurt, Berkley said, but, “how do you measure that in comparison to the value you feel to society? . . . A man may be a good police officer, but he may not be an effective supervisor.”

Although he admits a good deal of fear at the prospect of returning to the street after eight years, Berkley said he believes the change will help him become a happier and healthier man, and also a better cop.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’m going to conquer this, and I know that.”