Two detectives in Bradenton, Florida, may have flushed their careers down the toilet after allegedly breaking into city hall to use the restroom.
According to WFLA, Bradenton City Hall is connected to the police station. The two officers are accused of propping open a door leading to a closed hallway in city hall on Feb. 7.
On the following Monday, a city official discovered that the locks on the door had been tampered with and ordered an investigation, the station reports. The door was left unlocked all weekend, posing a potential security risk.
Surveillance video showed Detective Ross Johnson and an unidentified officer manipulating locks to keep the door open. Investigators interviewed Johnson on Feb. 20 to flush out the details.
According to a police report, Johnson said he and his alleged accomplice reversed the latch of the door "so we could use the bathroom or use [the hallway] as a cut-through." He told investigators that he wanted to use the city hall toilet because the bathroom in the detective area was "nasty," according to Bradenton.com.
Johnson and his alleged accomplice both worked in the narcotics division. Johnson was fired over the incident, but the other detective, whose name has been redacted from an investigative report, has a pre-disciplinary hearing scheduled in June, according to FoxNews.com.
“Now that I see the severity of it… I understand what I did was wrong. I just want to apologize. I didn’t mean to cause any embarrassment to the chief or anything like that,” Johnson said, according to WFLA.
Bradenton locals have had different reactions to the scandal.
Keith Rogers told MySuncoast.com he wasn't surprised by the news.
“Bradenton Police, they are not at a professional level that one would really expect,” he said.
Todd Reese was more sympathetic.
“I can't expect all police officers to be moral giants. They are people too,” he told the website.
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