[color="Blue"](A 22-year career ended over some off-handed comment. Welcome to America.)

http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060701/NEWS01/607010352/1002

Article published Jul 1, 2006

Officer accused of racial slur

By HEATHER DONAHOE
The Leaf-Chronicle

A 22-year Clarksville Police Department veteran has been decommissioned following accusations he made a racially inappropriate comment while eating at a local restaurant last week with other department employees.

Officer Jeff Stanfill was placed on desk duty in CPD's Records Division after Sgt. Scott Thornton reported hearing him make a racial slur, CPD Deputy Chief Bob Davis confirmed Friday.

Davis said the comment was made June 15, according to Thornton, while the sergeant, Stanfill, another district sergeant and a police recruit were getting ready to eat, during a shift break.

The comment, which CPD officials would not specify, was made in response to a joke from another customer, but after the customer had left the restaurant, Davis said.

Stanfill's decommissioned status — which suspended his police authority and included the [highlight]confiscation of his gun, badge and patrol car[/highlight] — will remain in effect pending the outcome of an internal investigation by CPD's Professional Integrity Unit. Pay will not be affected for the duration of the investigation.

Chief Mark Smith said Friday, as soon as he was made aware of the incident, Stanfill was decommissioned.

[highlight]Smith said the comment "could be considered offensive."[/highlight]

It is not the first time Stanfill has been accused of making ill-suited remarks.

He was named in Officer Travis Hisel's 2004 federal lawsuit, which claimed Stanfill made derogatory remarks in 2002 about black officers in the department and about Korean women, saying they were "addicted to sex."

Stanfill admitted to making the statement, but said it was taken out of context, explaining he was referring only to Korean women who marry U.S. soldiers in Korea, according to a recorded interview released to The Leaf-Chronicle in 2004 by the Professional Integrity Unit.

Stanfill, who at the time was a field training officer in 2002, was demoted because of the incident, but restored to the position a short time later.

Hisel's lawsuit is scheduled for trial Sept. 12.

Stanfill was hired at CPD in August, 1983.