Freeh Orders Crackdown on Drunk Driver FBI Agents : Discipline: Actions can range from suspension without pay, to loss of government driving privileges, to dismissal for repeat offenses.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh has issued new rules cracking down on drunk drivers in the bureau, after an incident in which an Atlanta agent allegedly killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol, it was learned Thursday.

Freeh, in a recent interview, said he was “disturbed” to find that the FBI had no consistent policy for handling drunk driving and related conduct in its ranks.

The punishments for 24 cases he reviewed over the last three years varied so widely that it was as if 24 different people in the FBI handled the cases, Freeh said, “and yet they were all adjudicated by the same unit here.”

“I believe the FBI is obligated to take severe administrative action for alcohol-related misconduct,” Freeh said in a message Monday to all special agents in charge of the FBI’s 56 field offices and the 22 FBI legal attaches in U.S. embassies around the world.

“Employees must be held accountable for their on- and off-duty alcohol-related misconduct, whether or not they are specifically charged with an alcohol-related offense by a local law enforcement agency,” Freeh said.

The case that prompted the action involved FBI agent Danny A. Scott, who was charged Aug. 5 with first-degree vehicular homicide and driving under the influence in an accident that left a 27-year-old father dead. He also was accused of leaving the scene of an accident and obstruction of a police officer.

In 1992, Scott, 50, pleaded no contest to a driving-under-the-influence charge in the same Cobb County, Ga., area where the latest incident took place. His driver’s license was returned to him after he underwent in- and out-patient treatment and completed court-ordered offender courses, according to court documents cited by the Atlanta Constitution.

But shortly after midnight last Aug. 5, Scott’s automobile allegedly struck Bruce Everett Watson Jr., who was on his way to a friend’s house after getting off work at a gas station and convenience store. Watson was the father of a 4-year-old daughter. Although Scott was driving an FBI car equipped with a radio and a cellular phone, he allegedly drove to his home a few blocks from the accident and called 911 from there, telling the operator that he “possibly hit something or somebody.”

Cobb County police found Watson’s body beside the road and attempted to question Scott at his house. Police said he refused to cooperate, would not submit to sobriety tests and struggled with officers. Scott is free on $25,000 bail.

Freeh, in his message, said: “I want to put every FBI employee on notice that I intend to deal very harshly with any instance in which an employee is convicted of driving under the influence or while intoxicated.”

Under the new rules, first offenders, whether convicted in court or as the result of an FBI administrative inquiry, will be suspended without pay for at least 30 days. Immediately after arrest or an administrative finding, the employee will be barred from driving a government car. The car prohibition will be extended at least a year if guilt is determined in most cases and will not be affected by a reduction of the motor vehicle offense through plea bargaining, judicial review or the employee’s entering a diversion or substance abuse program.

FBI agents or employees found guilty a second time will be fired unless there are “compelling mitigating circumstances.”

“We can’t be an organization that doesn’t have a policy with respect to something so important,” Freeh said in the interview. “We’re telling the American people: ‘Don’t drink and drive.’ ”

Speaking of the bureau’s total work force of 23,400, Freeh said that he recognizes they consume alcohol at social events while not on duty. He urged them to avoid driving after drinking and to take such steps as arranging for nondrinking designated drivers.

The new policy encourages employees with substance-abuse problems to seek treatment through the FBI’s employee assistance program and directs heads of field offices to conduct inquiries in misconduct cases involving alcohol to determine whether the employee is experiencing alcohol-related problems. Those found to have such problems will be directed to seek counseling through the bureau or some outside source.