The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Martin County Florida policeman Jack Munsey. He gets the award for using his patrol car camera for closeup photos of women in short clothes or close up filming of other female parts. Munsey has been fired from his job.

Munsey is a bad joke and deserves the punishment he is getting. For using his workplace for his personal pleasure, Jack Munsey is today's Knucklehead of the day.

Open Post- Bright & Early, Jo's Cafe, Point Five, Stop the ACLU,

STUART — Fellow deputies took just four minutes Wednesday to conclude Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder made the right decision in firing Jack Munsey for using his patrol car camera to record close-ups of girls in short skirts and bikinis.

Munsey, 39, appealed his January firing to a five-member career service board made up of his peers that could have made a nonbinding recommendation for leniency had it disagreed with the findings.

But after showing the panel a condensed 12-minute version of the approximately 95 minutes of tape confiscated from Munsey's patrol car, attorney Bob Norton, representing Crowder's viewpoint, urged them to send a message that even though what Munsey did was not illegal, it was a huge breach of ethics for an officer who is supposed to represent authority and protection.

"He zoomed in on their breasts. He zoomed in on their posteriors," Norton said. "They sure don't expect that from people wearing green."

An investigator testified that he knows one of the girls on the tapes was 15 years old and that he suspects some of the other unidentified girls were even younger.

The daylong hearing included testimony about two previous investigations involving Munsey.

In 1997 he was suspended for seven days for using a department computer to look for pornography on the Internet while on duty at the jail.

In 2004, he was suspended after he totaled a patrol car while speeding on his way to work.

Investigators noted he had a Playboy magazine in the car at the time.

Munsey's attorney, supplied by the Police Benevolent Association union, argued the videotaping was a brief lapse in judgment that was not serious enough to warrant firing.

"This is the theoretical death penalty in a labor employment case," Larry Fagan argued. "This is something that will follow him forever."

Norton countered that Munsey, who did not testify in Wednesday's hearing, is responsible for his own undoing.

"As for Mr. Munsey's life, if it's ruined, who do you think ruined it?" Norton said.

This was the first hearing under a new appeal process agreed to in the last labor negotiating session.

The sheriff has the burden of proving his decision was correct, but he is not bound by the panel's recommendation, which can be a simple majority.

Under the old rules, the person appealing had to prove he was wrongly disciplined, but if he won it was binding on the sheriff.

After the hearing, Crowder said he was willing to listen if Munsey's peers had found a reason to reconsider. The vote to uphold the firing was unanimous.

Cross Posted to Bullwinkle Blog