Fired for ‘Aggressiveness’ : Closing Arguments Made at Ex-Officer’s Hearing

Former Police Officer Richard Draper, who became so consumed with anger at another motorist that he chased him down the freeway at speeds reaching 100 m.p.h. and used “excessive force” in subduing him, should be kept off the San Diego force, a city attorney said Friday.

Deputy City Atty. Joe Battaglino, summing up three days of testimony in Draper’s bid for reinstatement, told the city’s Civil Service Commission: “Draper doesn’t believe he did anything wrong. That’s the scary part.

“He feels justified in this chase. He feels justified in the contact. That’s the scary part.”

Draper was fired in May after he chased and arrested Scott McMillan, a 20-year-old San Diego State University student. McMillan triggered the incident when he cut off Draper and his wife, former San Diego police officer Sandra Byers, who were off duty and driving home in their pickup truck on Interstate 8 in El Cajon.

Declined to Take Action

The San Diego County district attorney’s office declined to take action against either McMillan or Draper.

McMillan, who has filed a civil lawsuit contending that the Police Department knew of Draper’s alleged pattern of “excessively forceful arrests,” and Battaglino claim that the Feb. 7 chase began when McMillan inadvertently cut off Draper’s truck in heavy traffic. Battaglino said the chase ended 27 miles later on an exit ramp, when a “ranting, raving” Draper bloodied McMillan’s head with his gun barrel while arresting him.

But Draper, his wife and attorney John Heisner described a very different man, one who acted professionally and followed Police Department procedures despite his admitted “extreme anger.” They contend that McMillan triggered the chase when he deliberately veered to force Draper’s pickup off the road, an action they called an “assault with a deadly weapon.”

Although Draper claimed Tuesday that “my gun did not come in contact with his head,” he and his wife said Friday that McMillan’s head may have accidentally struck the gun barrel when Draper grabbed McMillan from behind by the shirt collar as McMillan tried to escape.

String of Complaints

“If he’d been motivated by anger, I submit to you he’d have mopped up the street with Scott McMillan,” Heisner said of the 215-pound officer. “This man angered would have taken Scott McMillan and turned him inside out. Nothing, nothing like that happened.”

The freeway incident was the last in a string of 20 complaints against Draper, most of which stemmed from his allegedly aggressive tactics. But Heisner contended again Friday that the 10-year department veteran was fired because media coverage of his activities had become an “embarrassment” to the department’s leaders.

Heisner said Draper did not violate any department policy, and that testimony alleging that he did came from witnesses whose perceptions were thrown off by the unaccustomed excitement of an arrest with a drawn handgun.

But Battaglino told the commissioners that “the pursuit, taken alone, warrants termination. The contact later, alone, warrants termination.”

Commissioners David Lewis, Hope Logan and Dale Cobb will deliberate and issue a written decision, which may be released by the commission’s next meeting, on Dec. 14.