Brian Lushbaugh is barred from the Athens Police Department and now has a criminal record because of his sexual relations with two interns. The punishment is light for something that cast such shame on a police department.
Both of the women were older than 18, and Lushbaugh was charged with two counts of dereliction of duty. This officer was entrusted to work with interns ' he was credited with keeping the program alive ' and then it comes out that he had sexual relations with two women. The sex was not illegal in itself, though it was certainly morally and ethically wrong.
Athens is a place where town residents constantly interact with students, and it cannot afford to staff someone with such questionable morals with those so young.
With Lushbaugh's decision to plead guilty to the second-degree misdemeanors, he avoided jail time ' a maximum of 90 days in jail for each count ' but will have to pay about $1,500 in fines. It's as close to a slap on the wrist as he could have received.
He could become an officer again if his record is expunged and he goes through the police academy again, a three- to four-year process. Luckily, if the charges were removed, other law enforcement agencies could still see them, which would likely prohibit his attaining a job with any other department. Police departments do not need men like Brian Lushbaugh on their payroll, whether in Athens or across the country.
Maybe more important than his punishments, though, is that the city will avoid a trial of a cop that was bound to be full of lurid details and unethical behavior. It would have drawn out the sensitive situation further.
At the most basic level, police officers work on trust: the trust of residents that they will serve and protect them, the trust of city officials to maintain order and protect the peace and the trust that they, themselves, will not break the laws or the ethical standards they are paid to maintain.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Post executive editors.
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