And Justice For Some
By Mitch Berg
Doug Hester of The Northern Muckraker has been following the case of Woodbury cop Jeffrey Gort. Gort has been involved in the criminal justice system since his service pistol accidentially discharged in a Saint Cloud hotel room – a crime called “negligent discharge” [*]. Hester’s been following the denouement of the case. Or trying to.
But we might be getting a bit closer:
Officer Jeffrey Gort, the cop from the Woodbury, Minnesota Police Department who experienced a negligent discharge in a St. Cloud, Minnesota hotel room on August 2, 2006, has been scheduled for a pretrial hearing on November 26, 2007 at 2:30 p.m. in Stearns County Court.
Since he had previously been scheduled for a settlement conference, it seems likely that any suspected backroom games-playing is now off the table, and Gort will now have to appear in public to answer for his screwup, just like any other peasant would have to do.
We plan on being there to document what happens, in the assumption that this case will finally be resolved sometime this decade.
Stay tuned.
[*] All jokes involving the phrase “negligent discharge” are hereby pre-empted. Sorry, Angryclown. Move along. Nothing to see here.
November 27th, 2007 at 10:59 am
That is so unfair.
Hey, you hear the rumor that Lott’s resignation might have something to do with negligent discharge in a hotel room?
November 27th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
No problem with the officer being charged. However, the glee that the blogger feels over the incident is unbecoming.
Anyone trained in firearm safety knows how to safely unload a firearm. A professional needs to be extra careful.
November 27th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
No glee here at all, I just want to make sure that Officer Gort gets treated the same way as any one of us regular folk, especially given that he was off duty and out of his jurisdiction when the incident occurred. He’s already received special treatment, just because of what he does for a living. If this had happened to any other citizen permit holder, they would have been arrested on the spot, and their name and picture would have been splashed all over the media, none of which happened to Gort, whose name still hasn’t been publicly released.
I don’t fault the officer for having the ND. God knows that this could happen to anyone after a long, tiring day of training, and as with any mechanical device, one momentary slipup could have disastrous consequences. I do fault Gort for his actions following the discharge, as I noted on my blog on October 9, 2006:
“I will be judgmental regarding the officer’s actions after the ND. You’d think he would have immediately checked the next room to see if his round had hit anyone, but apparently not. I think at the very least he should have called 911 himself to report the incident, to give his brother officers a heads up, so they wouldn’t be going into such a potentially dangerous situation without any information. Of course, one never knows exactly what they would do under the same circumstances, but I like to think that I would do a little more than just sit there twiddling my thumbs, especially with the experience that this fellow apparently has.”
A private citizen who did this comedy of errors would have been booked immediately, especially after making the SWAT team kick down the door, but Gort was just sent home, at least until the investigation was over.
Again, I have no malicious interest in seeing Officer Gort crucified, but I do believe that he should be held responsible for his actions just the same as everyone else. The days of “tinning” your way out of bad behavior is rapidly ending, and I think that’s a good thing.