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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Drugs Pro-Pot Cop Gets Money to Hang Out and Eat Pizza

Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 10:46 AM

A former Mountlake Terrace police sergeant whose views supporting the decriminalization of marijuana led to his dismissal in 2005 has won his job back and an $815,000 settlement from the city and Snohomish County.

However, Sgt. Jonathan Wender will not return to the streets. In addition to the financial settlement, the city has agreed to keep him on administrative leave and to pay him a $90,000-a-year salary for the next two years, when he will be able to retire after 20 years with the department.

This guy's firing was bullshit, so this decision establishes needed precedent that officers may support changing drug laws—laws that cops know are ineffective, costly, and distracting—just like supporting any other political cause. But—really?—he'll get $90,000 a year to just hang out?

Comments (19) RSS

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I always figured "administrative leave" meant that you were stuck doing paperwork. Is this not the case?

Posted by Emily on January 13, 2009 at 10:47 AM

I wonder if he needs a new best friend?

Posted by Sam The Butcher on January 13, 2009 at 10:48 AM

It's totally worth the money to keep him from infecting other employees with his unhealthy ideas.

Posted by Pam on January 13, 2009 at 10:48 AM

The fact that a Terrace cop is in favor of decriminalization is hilariously ironic to anyone who grew up smoking pot in that suburb.

Posted by Hernandez on January 13, 2009 at 10:54 AM

Maybe he can perform administrative duties as the rent-a-cop excuse for a high school liason officer at Mountlake Terrace?

Maybe he can be the one to give students speeches on drugs?

Hell if I were him I'd rub their faces in it and demand to be able to give those speeches as a part of the settlement.

Posted by Just Sayin' on January 13, 2009 at 10:55 AM

I wonder if I can get fired at my job for pro-pot views? Sounds like a good money-making strategy. I think I'll start attaching Bob Marley pics to all my business e-mails.

Posted by schmacky on January 13, 2009 at 10:57 AM

Small price to pay to prevent other law enforcement agencies from doing the same.

Sure pot smoking is a legal issue, with legal issues pro and con. but for some it is a moral issue.

Let's not forget GWBUSH had a religious, moral, view as to why pot smoking is wrong (it was a reference he made about the immorality of Canadians to a religious group).

Smoking pot should not be a socially or religiously moral BAD, any more than it should be a socially or religiously moral GOOD. It should be like drinking a beer or taking ibuprofen... something a person choose to take without “moral” consequences
(btw, it’s the actions a person DOES while under the influence of beer or ibuprofen that is morally BAD or GOOD)

Posted by Phenics on January 13, 2009 at 11:01 AM

If they're so ineffective, why do the organized pot distributors and Seattle druggos get upset when someone enforces them?

Answer, it's all about the Hamiltons...

Posted by Hemp Day! Hemp Day! on January 13, 2009 at 11:04 AM

That's on top of the $800,000 + settlement he just received AND two years of PAID leave he just had. He has got to be the luckiest cop ever.

Posted by JJ on January 13, 2009 at 11:13 AM

This story makes me feel confused:

I'm angry about shitloads of money being wasted on employing someone NOT to do their job.

I'm angry that the guy got fired in the first place.

I'm angry about the stupid drug laws that make it easier for kids to get meth than booze.

And also I'm happy the cop won because his firing was bullshit.

Looking at it all in a balance, I guess this story makes me angry. If only there were some legal herbal substance I could smoke or ingest to feel better...

Posted by dwight moody on January 13, 2009 at 11:22 AM

The moral is if you need a lawyer, don't hire Mountlke Terrace's. You want Sgt. Jonathan Wender's guy for sure.

Posted by elenchos on January 13, 2009 at 11:31 AM

It's more of a settlement of $1,000,000, with some of it paid in later installments so that he can keep the retirement benefits. The point is not to pay him to do nothing, but to make him technically an employee for two more years so he doesn't lose his health insurance, pension, etc. as he ages, which he had already earned from his previous years on the force.

Posted by sf gal on January 13, 2009 at 11:52 AM

Plus he's gonna be getting 50K+ pension for the rest of his life. That is one seriously loaded pot smoking cop.

Posted by daniel on January 13, 2009 at 11:53 AM

At 79 cents apiece, that's 1,031,646 doughnuts, plus another 113,924 doughnuts a year for the next two years, and I'll betcha Westernco would give you a hella discount on that many.

Posted by Fnarf on January 13, 2009 at 11:59 AM

@5: "Maybe he can be the one to give students speeches on drugs?"

I believe this is the same ex-cop Jonathan Wender who teaches in the Sociology department at UW, and he does just that. He teaches courses in law and society, drugs and society, and so on:
http://www.soc.washington.edu/people/fac…

While the settlement might seem like a waste of money, we as taxpayers do have some obligation in determining how our money is used, so I don't have a problem with massive settlements for gross injustices (false incarcerations, firing without cause, and all that). Unfortunately in many instances, the people directly responsible for the injustices are not sanctioned at all. We, as taxpayers, need to fix that.

Posted by UW pothead on January 13, 2009 at 12:36 PM

Wow, somehow the government found a way to waste even MORE money on the war on drugs.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on January 13, 2009 at 1:07 PM

Here here UW pothead!
Thank you Sgt Wender.

Posted by Ric Smith on January 13, 2009 at 1:08 PM

Doughnuts are 69 cents a piece at Top Foods. And If he takes his own cup to Trader Joe's, well, that's free coffee right there.

Posted by Simone on January 13, 2009 at 2:00 PM

Presumably, the officer had a contract with the city of Montlake Terrace, via his union. He upheld his end of it, and was fired for a stupid reason. He is merely collecting on what is owed him in his union contract - if it weren't for idiots in management, he would still be working for it.

I say good for him. He deserves every penny - it's the idiots that fired him that deserve all the scorn. As the late Dorothy Parker once said, "Now, look, baby, 'Union' is spelled with 5 letters. It is not a four-letter word. "

Posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay on January 13, 2009 at 10:21 PM