CHP Officer Who Recorded Beating Gets His Job Back

California Highway Patrol Officer Marco A. DeGennaro, whose conduct at the conclusion of a beating by Riverside sheriff’s deputies earned him praise but whose lies to federal authorities got him fired, has been given his job back, ending a confusing and embarrassing episode for the CHP.

According to documents chronicling the status of the case, DeGennaro has agreed to accept a 20-day suspension--a penalty far less severe than the CHP’s initial punishment, which was to terminate the young officer’s career.

The CHP’s reversal comes after the agency was subjected to withering criticism for firing DeGennaro, a 26-year-old officer who responded to the end of a car chase just in time to witness two Riverside deputies as they struck a pair of illegal immigrants with their batons. That incident was filmed by television cameras circling overhead and was broadcast around the world, igniting an international controversy.

DeGennaro took his suspect into custody that day without striking him. His conduct was praised by use of force experts who reviewed the videotapes of the incident.

Unfortunately for DeGennaro, he also was carrying a microcassette recorder, and it captured the altercation and its aftermath. That audiotape emerged as potentially important evidence in the civil rights investigation of the two sheriff’s deputies, but it also led to embarrassment for the Highway Patrol: Late in the tape, a CHP officer can be heard using a racial slur.

The officer who made the remark was not DeGennaro, but the comment cast a shadow across the CHP’s otherwise commended efforts that day.

In the hours and days after the incident, DeGennaro told his supervisors about the tape, but received conflicting advice about what to do with it. Rather than book it, he held onto it, saying later that he was confused about whether to treat the tape as evidence or as his personal property.

When asked about the tape by FBI agents in an interview several days after the beating, DeGennaro first denied he had made one. The following day, he admitted that he had lied. His lawyer, Harland W. Braun, set up a meeting with the FBI, and DeGennaro turned over the tape at that session.

The tape’s handling became the subject of an exhaustive internal CHP probe. At the conclusion of it, the CHP found that DeGennaro’s actions during the April 1 arrests were not at issue, but that his lie to the FBI and his handling of the tape were “unacceptable and ultimately brought discredit and extreme embarrassment to you and the department.”

The CHP responded with a flurry of severe discipline. It suspended one officer and threatened to demote another, who retired rather than face the loss in rank. It fired DeGennaro outright.

But now the CHP has reversed itself. After hearing DeGennaro’s appeal, the department has concluded that the officer should receive a 20-day suspension. DeGennaro, who has been on paid leave during the investigation, has accepted and could be back at work Oct. 21.

CHP officials declined to comment on the case or the reasons for amending the initial penalty.

Although a 20-day suspension represents a serious punishment, it gives DeGennaro back his job and career, both of which would have been lost by the proposed firing.

Once bitter about his treatment at the hands of the Highway Patrol, DeGennaro said Thursday that he was merely glad to get the case over with and was looking forward to working again.

“I didn’t realize how nice it would feel to get this over with,” he said. “It’s like I can breathe again.”