‘Horrified and appalled’ by the Bellevue Police Department

Are there bigger problems with the Bellevue Police Department than the behavior of two drunk, obnoxious officers who were demoted following their actions at a September Seahawks game?

This report details what happened with two “very intoxicated” officers who were described, by their own department, as being “intimidating, out of line and obnoxious” before, during and after they were kicked out of the Sept. 16 game.

The Bellevue officers – 11-year patrol veteran Officer Andrew Hanke and 23-year Bellevue PD Corporal Dion Robertson – were not in uniform and did not have their weapons.

They were shooting off their alcohol-fueled mouths. Alcohol on game day included Coors Light beer, Bloody Marys, whiskey shots, rum and Coke, and Pink Panty Droppers. That drink, as described in a police investigation, was one-fifth vodka, eight beers, and pink lemonade in a two-gallon container. They had two batches of panty droppers.

The drink should have been called the F-bomb dropper. Their language was vulgar and offensive, first with a confrontation involving a Seattle police officer, then with everyone around them inside the stadium, and again as they were leaving the property after being ejected.

Hanke was demoted with a pay cut and suspended for 30 days. Robertson was demoted as a leader of the bomb squad and took a pay cut also.

More potentially damaging information comes from KING 5 investigative reporter Linda Byron. The State Patrol is investigating an allegation of misconduct involving six commanders ranging from lieutenant to deputy chief.

According to KING 5 sources, that incident involved relationships between two male commanders and a female captain that resulted in threats and a physical altercation.

What is going on in Bellevue? Police Chief Linda Pillo refuses to comment beyond a press release this week that detailed her officers’ demotions following their drunken behavior at the Seahawks game.

Bellevue Mayor Conrad Lee refuses to comment beyond a press release issued earlier this week in support of its Bellevue Police Department.

Bellevue Criminal Attorney Robert Perez says of the city’s police department, “I’m horrified, I’m appalled, and I’m embarrassed.

Perez is not involved in these cases with Bellevue cops.

“I’m also an Hispanic, a person of color, and when I hear about the racial comments they made about ‘blacks think they’re running the show’ and that ‘my wife will pay the ticket because she’s white,’ this obviously reveals a deeper problem,” says Perez.

He is offended that the City of Bellevue is choosing to “hold these people up as competent police officers.” And, he thinks there are more than just a few bad apples in police department, which has 178 officers.

“As a citizen of Bellevue, as an attorney who practices criminal defense in Bellevue, this does not appear to me to be an isolated incident,” Perez says.

One other incident is detailed in the 580-page Bellevue Police Department’s internal investigation of officers Hanke and Robertson at the September game at Century Link Field.

Although the officer’s wives, who were with them at the Seahawks game, were cleared of any wrong doing. One of them has had another drinking incident since the game.

On Oct. 6, 2012 the woman appeared intoxicated after a wedding in Kirkland. She argued with a valet at the Woodmark Hotel, refused to put down an open container and mentioned she was associated with the Bellevue Police Department.

Another Bellevue officer “took the beer out of her hands” and drove her home. He reports he “put the bottle on the floorboards of the back seat and she was unconscious during the ride home.

That officer said in a memo the only other person he told about the drunk behavior was a Bellevue Police Guild representative.

By LINDA THOMAS