RALEIGH, N.C. — If you’re a state trooper, losing your hat
can get you in trouble.
Lying about how you lost your hat, however, can get you
fired.
Thomas C. Wetherington, 22, says he was treated unfairly
when the N.C. Highway Patrol dismissed him in August over a lost hat,
especially considering that other troopers have kept their jobs despite having
sexual liaisons on duty.
“Look, we’ve got guys having sex in patrol cars just
about every day,” said Wetherington, a trooper since 2007. “Why did I
get dismissed when other guys get slaps on the wrist?”
Capt. Everett Clendenin, the patrol’s spokesman, declined to
comment on the case Wednesday, citing pending legal action from the fired
trooper. In general, he said, a trooper who loses his hat might face
disciplinary action, but would not be fired for that alone.
Wetherington, the former trooper, said that on a blustery,
wet night in March he pulled over a vehicle towing a large boat on U.S. 70 in
Craven County. While seizing open containers of alcohol and two loaded pistols
from the vehicle’s occupants, the trooper said, he set his hat on top of his
patrol car.
He said he heard it blow off during a strong gust, tumbling
down the asphalt in the dark.
Wetherington and another trooper later returned and spent
about two hours looking for his hat in the ditches along the busy four-lane
highway. The only trace he found was the flattened cord with two golden
“acorns” that had adorned the top of the hat’s brim.
“I glue my tassels down,” Wetherington said.
“How they came off is beyond me, but they had been run over and crushed.
So one could deduce from that your hat was run over.”
When he told his supervisor about the lost hat, Wetherington
was asked to file a written report so he could be issued a new one. Trooper
hats — known as “campaign covers” for the military term applied to
the similar headwear worn by Marine drill instructors — are state property.
“My campaign cover was caught in the wind and blew into
the roadway,” Wetherington wrote. “The campaign cover was struck and was
blown or dragged to an unknown location.”
About two weeks later, the same driver whom Wetherington was
ticketing when he lost his hat got stopped again by another state trooper. It
turned out the driver had the hat, which he had retrieved from the dark road
after Wetherington had left the scene to help another motorist. Although a card
with Wetherington’s name and phone number were in the hatband, the driver had
not called to say he had it.
The hat was then passed on to Wetherington’s boss, according
to a written report about the incident from the Highway Patrol.
“After receiving the hat, Sergeant Oglesby observed
that it was in good condition and did not appear to have been run over as he
had been told by Trooper Wetherington,” the report said.
The report says after the sergeant questioned Wetherington,
he admitted he had not been truthful in his initial report about the hat.
Wetherington said in an interview that the sergeant
intimidated him during the interrogation, and that he was apparently mistaken about
the fate of his hat.
“When I last recalled having my hat, it was on my head,
but at some point I must have taken it off and set it on the car,” he
said. “It’s sort of like when you lose your wallet and look all over for
it, only to find it in your pocket. I never intentionally misled anyone.”
{::PAGEBREAK::}
On Aug. 4, Wetherington was charged with a violation of the
patrol’s code of conduct by Col. Randy Glover, who was then the head of the
district that includes New Bern, N.C. The code, similar to that used by the military,
requires troopers to be truthful.
The N.C. Highway Patrol has had discipline problems with
many troopers in recent years. As Wetherington noted, several cases have
involved sexual misconduct.
Since 1998, the Highway Patrol has dealt with at least 27
cases of sexual misconduct by troopers either on or off duty. In several cases,
those involved were not fired, including a trooper who received a five-day
suspension in 2002 after he was caught repeatedly having sex on duty in and on
his parked patrol car. On one occasion, the trooper inadvertently left his
handgun behind, where children later found it.
Those problems have also involved Glover, who was sworn in
as the patrol’s commander three days after he charged Wetherington with a
violation of the patrol’s code of conduct. Glover acknowledged last month that
he was reassigned from a post in Harnett County in 1987 after his wife caught
him having an affair with a sheriff’s dispatcher.
After Wetherington appealed his dismissal, the N.C.
Employment Security Commission determined that he did not engage in significant
misconduct.
Citing a solid work record, the Employee Advisory Committee
of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety also reviewed the case and
ruled Sept. 1 that Wetherington should be reinstated and that the conduct of a
supervisor who pushed for the dismissal be reviewed.
So far the patrol has refused to give Wetherington his job
back. He is now awaiting a hearing before a state administrative law judge with
the authority to order his reinstatement.
The ousted trooper said Thursday he still struggles to
understand how he was booted over the fate of a $45 hat.
“I bleed black and silver,” Wetherington said.
“This was my life, and they took it away from me. All I want is to get it
back.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
