Cop punished for drunken behavior at Seahawks game in trouble again


Posted by John de Leon

A Bellevue police officer who was disciplined for his drunken off-duty behavior at Seattle Seahawks game in September 2012 has been charged with misdemeanor drunk driving in an incident in which a fellow Bellevue officer stopped him for erratic driving and then allowed him to go home with a relative.
The officer who was pulled over has been identified as Andrew Hanke.
Bellevue police say on Nov. 20, an unidentified off-duty Bellevue police officer was driving home in his patrol car when he stopped a car on Interstate 90 near Issaquah to investigate the driver for possible DUI. The driver of the vehicle that was pulled over was Hanke, according to Bellevue city Prosecutor Lynn Moberly, who filed the DUI charge Thursday in King County District Court in Issaquah.
The off-duty officer did not arrest Hanke and instead allowed him to be driven home by a relative, police said.
The investigating officer notified a supervisor of the incident.
The following morning, Bellevue police Chief Linda Pillo was notified of the incident and Hanke was immediately placed on administrative leave, said Bellevue police public information Officer Seth Tyler.  The department has also opened an internal investigation into the officer who stopped Hanke but did not arrest him.
“While officers are allowed some discretion during a traffic stop, the officer’s decision in this case not to make an arrest is undergoing a thorough and objective internal investigation. That investigation will determine whether the on-duty officer used poor judgment and/or failed to perform their duties,” police said in a news release.
Police say details of the internal investigations will not be released until they are completed.
“I expect our officers to abide by our guiding principles of respect, accountability, integrity and service, and to abide by the laws of the state of Washington both on and off duty,” Pillo said in a statement. “If these allegations are sustained, the involved officers will be held accountable for their actions.”
Hanke was one of two Bellevue officers punished last year for their off-duty behavior at a Seahawks game, when they drunkenly confronted a female Seattle police officer and got into a profanity-laced altercation with a fan and his family.
During the investigation into that incident, which was first reported by The Seattle Times, Hanke was suspended for 30 days without pay and removed from the Bomb Squad. Hanke had told investigators that he was too drunk to remember driving home to Snoqualmie from CenturyLink Field.