Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

THE ISSUE

The Soffredine case

Our view:
City, others still don't get it

More on the Soffredine case

May 30, 2010

Editorial: City fails to step up in Soffredine episode

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A judge last week sentenced three men for their roles in a local off-duty police officer's drunken car crash and cover-up attempt, a tawdry affair that outraged the community and fully exposed the above-the-law mentality that appears to permeate so much of local law enforcement.

The various fines and probation received were warranted, but did little to salve an angry public. Some of the actors in this drama still don't get it, and the public senses change only will come grudgingly, if at all.

By now, the main players are well known — Traverse City police Officer Joseph Soffredine, who cut a boozy swath through the community early Feb. 7, and Grand Traverse County deputies Robert Sillers and Mark Noffke, who tried to spare brethren Soffredine a drunken-driving arrest when he crashed and burned his vehicle on Cedar Run Road.

Sheriff Tom Bensley eventually fired Sillers and Noffke, an honorable and justifiable act. There should be no safe haven in law enforcement for law-breaking cops, and Sillers and Noffke forfeited any claim to public employment when they shielded Soffredine from a fate they were sworn to detect and investigate.

Theirs was no "mistake," as some apologists try to frame it. They willfully, knowingly broke the law, and compromised themselves and their employer. Prosecutors charged them with neglecting their duty, they pleaded guilty and were fired. A justifiable fate.

Bensley, quite predictably, is on the hot seat from some of his deputized underlings, who clearly believe criminal law applies to others and that police deserve some sort of get-out-of-jail-free card. They had an easier time of it before voters elected Bensley in 2008; his presence threatens the region's stout blue wall.

But Bensley understands the public is in no mood to accept double standards from those who wear a badge. Integrity and credibility obviously mean something to him.

Sadly, the same can't be said for Soffredine's employers, specifically Traverse City police Chief Michael Warren.

Warren won't jettison Soffredine, the catalyst behind the whole ugly mess, and indeed seems increasingly intent on defending and protecting his wayward cop.

A lot of locals believe Warren owes his job to former police Chief and current Traverse City Commissioner Ralph Soffredine, who just happens to be Joe Soffredine's dad. Warren hired Joe Soffredine several years ago, despite a criminal conviction for an alcohol-related assault.

(A tape from the House of Doggs restaurant taken just over an hour before the crash shows what appears to be an alcohol-related dust-up Soffredine wasn't charged for.)

Warren's statements from the start betray a clear pattern: Attempt to minimize Joe Soffredine's actions and downplay the need for serious sanctions. A written statement Warren released after Soffredine was sentenced for impaired driving last week indicated there would be no additional sanctions.

That means the month-long suspension he received in connection to the House of Doggs incident is his only departmental discipline; he apparently will face no repercussions from the city for the impaired driving plea.

Warren would have us believe the original 30-day suspension was a big deal; in reality, it was a relative wrist-slap. He could have been, should have been fired, despite some city officials' contention that his punishment was "reasonable."

So two county deputies rightly were axed, but Joe Soffredine prowls Traverse City's streets, bearing gun and badge and the power to toss people in jail, drunken drivers among them.

But he patrols without credibility. Soffredine is compromised as a police officer, as is Warren as police chief, especially in light of Warren's defensive and off-the-mark written statement after Soffredine's plea Tuesday.

Warren chose a worn, tired path and stuck tight to the shadows of the region's towering blue wall.

Bensley blazed a trail in which he righted a wrong and challenged his officers to embrace integrity and heightened expectations.

But unless other leaders display the courage and grit necessary to topple the blue wall, there's little doubt who faces the tougher journey.

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