This week, we reported that a police officer in Junction City, Kansas went to get coffee at a local McDonald’s and an employee wrote on the cup, “F****** pig.”
The Herington police chief said the now-former police officer made up the entire incident “as a joke.”
Herington Police Chief Brian Hornaday said in a news conference that a police officer at the center of the case is no longer with the department. Hornaday was the person who put a photo of the cup on Facebook thinking this was a legitimate case. Hornaday acknowledged it was “a black eye” on Junction City.
“This is now, absolutely, a black eye on law enforcement,” Hornaday said in the news conference.
The 23-year-old officer had been with the department for about two months and fabricated what happened “as a joke,” Hornaday said.
An investigation by Hornaday and McDonald’s determined no restaurant employee wrote the statement. Fortunately, McDonald’s had 24/7 tapes proving the innocence of the employees.
The officer had previously been a military police officer with the U.S. Army and lives in Junction City. He resigned from the police department, leaving it with five full-time officers. Hornaday declined to name the officer because it is a personnel issue.
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“It’s not a matter of us not wanting to tell you who it is, because we have no reason whatsoever to protect the former officer,” he said.
Hornaday said the case has been discussed with Dickinson County attorney, but he doesn’t expect criminal charges.
The original public post to Hornaday’s private Facebook page has either been deleted or is no longer public.
The McDonald’s restaurant owner had previously said video refuted the claim that an employee wrote the statement.
“In the investigation (by Herington police and McDonald’s), we have found that McDonald’s and its employees did not have anything whatsoever to do with this incident,” Hornaday said. “This was completely and solely fabricated by a Herington police officer who is no longer employed with our agency.”
That’s just what police needed — an officer pushing a hoax. It’s good he’s off the force. He needs to find a more appropriate job. Hopefully, he’s learned from this. He caused problems for McDonald’s, could have gotten an employee fired, and he put his chief in a terrible position. Finally, this tends to make officers in general look bad.
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