08/28/2007

Editorial

Justin Revnell honored by MADD selection?

Call it clueless, bizarre, unintentionally ironic or hypocritical, but MADD's recent selection of a Grand Traverse County sheriff's deputy as recipient of a local SALUTE Michigan Law Enforcement award is a real jaw-dropper.

Apparently, Justin Revnell earned MADD's praise for logging 41 drunken driving arrests over the past year. The group must be fixated on numbers, because its choice of Revnell otherwise ignored context, history and common sense.

Revnell allegedly was intoxicated on at least two occasions in 2004 when he roughed up a live-in girlfriend, including once when he allegedly wheeled home from a local watering hole and got into it with the woman, prompting her to call for help.

A state police-administered blood-alcohol test indicated Revnell remained drunk hours after he drove home from the bar.

Local prosecutors charged Revnell with domestic violence, but their case collapsed by spring 2005 when their chief witness — Revnell's alleged victim — disappeared after a few conversations with Revnell and his uncle/employer, Sheriff Scott Fewins.

The deputy remains on the county payroll, thanks to the vanishing act, but he sure doesn't rate a commendation for alcohol enforcement.

MADD's praise of Revnell and three other local officers was announced on the eve of a local crackdown on drunken driving. Sheriff's deputies and state police from the Traverse City post are among agencies to receive bonus tax dollars to pay for extra patrols to sniff out imbibing drivers.

Motorists caught in the dragnet face jail time, stiff fines and loss of driving privileges.

That is, unless the offenders work for the sheriff's department or state police. The same tough standards don't seem to apply to them.

In addition to Revnell, sheriff's deputy Gregory McManemy and then-Traverse City state police trooper David Meder ran afoul of the law after allegedly drinking too much.

McManemy this summer escaped a drunken driving charge after a long delay in taking a Breathalyzer test, while Meder last year crashed his vehicle and slipped away into the night after a boozy evening. Meder, it seems, learned a lesson from his previous 1990s drunken driving crash, arrest and conviction. This time he escaped big trouble by fleeing the scene, refusing to let responding cops in his house, and repeatedly lying. Either way, he kept his job.

These days, Revnell, McManemy and Meder are back on patrol, keeping a sharp eye out for drunks who don't wear badges.

Thankfully, MADD is out there to support law enforcement's push against drunken driving, even those who don't walk the walk, or even a straight line.