CMPD will recommend officer’s firing after being found impaired in police car, chief says

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer faces driving while impaired charges and will be cited for termination after being found in his police car along the grassy shoulder of an Interstate 277 off-ramp early Wednesday, Chief Johnny Jennings said.

“It’s not a good day,” Jennings said at a news conference where he announced the arrest of 14-year CMPD veteran officer Peter Lombardo. “It’s not a good look for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.”

Lombardo had a blood-alcohol level of .17, more than twice the legal limit for driving in the state, Jennings said. The officer who spotted the car along the off-ramp to 12th Street just before 3 a.m. administered a breath test on Lombardo, according to a police news release.

Jennings praised the officer who administered the test. Although, the chief said that’s what’s expected of officers per CMPD policies and procedures.

Lombardo was off-duty and in casual clothes, police said. Assigned to the Eastway Division, he belonged to CMPD’s special weapons and tactics team, Jennings said.

Any officer arrested with a blood-alcohol content above .14 will be cited for termination, according to CMPD’s internal DWI policy. The department’s civil service board will make a final determination about his firing.

“He made a bad decision. That bad decision is going to affect his career and affect the rest of his life,” Jennings said.

Lombardo was placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of the CMPD Internal Affairs investigation. CMPD hired the officer on May 19, 2008, officials said.

“It’s frustrating,” Jennings said of the incident. ”We take an oath from the day we’re in the academy: Don’t do anything to tarnish the badge.”

Police say they know the establishment where Lombardo consumed alcohol before he got behind the wheel of his take-home CMPD car, but were still confirming the location Wednesday afternoon. Bars, restaurants and social hosts can be held liable under the law for serving alcohol to intoxicated patrons who later cause a wreck, according to the Campbell University School of Law in Raleigh.

Of Lombardo, the chief said, “if he does have a problem with alcohol, I’m hoping he gets the help he needs.”