Local News Brief : Sergeant Faces Charges

A Hawthorne police sergeant faces drunk-driving charges and possible firing on accusations that he rammed a car at 50 m.p.h. with three times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.

The officer, Peter Frankel, 44, a 19-year veteran of the Hawthorne Police Department, formerly supervised the unit cracking down on drunk drivers.

Described as staggering drunk at the scene of the Aug. 29 accident in Rancho Palos Verdes, Frankel, off-duty and not in uniform, was disarmed by a group of teen-agers who had come to help, according to Eugene Peterson, a traffic investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Peterson said that Frankel did not resist.

A test later established that Frankel had a blood-alcohol level of .30%. He has been suspended with pay pending action on a departmental recommendation that he be dismissed, according to his attorney, Laurie Belger.