UPDATE: Former officer files lawsuit, alleges discrimination

KALAMAZOO -- He flashed his police badge, insisted on special parking privileges, even dropped the name of his brother, a Secret Service agent.

In the end, Mark Laster's reluctance to wait in line along with everyone else to see President Barack Obama led to the officer retiring early after 23 years with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.

Documents obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette reveal a tale of poor judgment, possibly fueled by alcohol.

On June 7, the day Obama came to Kalamazoo to speak at the Kalamazoo Central High School commencement, Laster apparently was drunk, crashed into a Michigan State Police cruiser, ignored the directives of his fellow officers and parked illegally in a secured area.

Driving his Jeep sport-utility vehicle, with his wife beside him and his two daughters in the back seat, Laster, who was off duty, set off the first red flag by ignoring an officer's warning and proceeding toward a secured parking lot near where Obama was to speak.

"Not a single" other security issue was reported during Obama's 4 1/2 hour visit, Public Safety Chief Jeff Hadley said. But several on-duty officers continued to have problems with Laster who, documents show:

-- Was reportedly drunk when he arrived at the event at Western Michigan University. Some officers who had contact with him told Lynn Wetmore, assistant chief of KDPS, that Laster had slurred speech and was "staggering" when he walked.

-- Violated federal law when he used his badge to gain access to a secured parking lot reserved for police and fire vehicles that were part of the security for Obama's visit.

-- Struck a state police cruiser, occupied by a trooper, while parking his vehicle in the lot.

-- Ignored an order from a KDPS lieutenant to move his vehicle from the lot.

-- Tried to enter a secured area near the Student Recreation Center, not far from where Obama was to arrive. He was stopped by two WMU Department of Public Safety officers.

Laster resigned Sept. 2, the day he was to appear for a disciplinary hearing before Hadley.

"His conduct was outrageous and uncalled for," Deputy Chief Samuel Harris, who reviewed the incident, wrote in a memo to Hadley. "He had tickets for the event, yet he insisted that he be allowed special admittance to the event. He did not want to stand in line and go through magnetometers like other off-duty department members who attended the same event.

"When ... Laster was interviewed ... he conveniently lost his memory whenever asked incriminating questions. He lied several times."

When contacted last week by a Gazette reporter, Laster said he wanted time to consider whether he wanted to comment for this report. He did not re-contact the reporter.

'Get ... out of my face'

Laster drew the attention of police officers from several agencies, including KDPS, WMU and the state police, not long after he arrived between 4 and 4:30 p.m. at WMU to attend Obama's speech. Laster had gotten tickets to the event through his brother, Todd Laster, an agent with the Secret Service, according to documents obtained under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.

Public Safety Officer Scott Noble was the first to talk to Laster that day when Laster approached Noble's post at Stadium Drive and Oliver Street in his SUV. Noble told Laster he could not enter the WMU campus through the post but Laster, who had his KDPS badge displayed on his leg, ignored Noble and drove through the post in the direction of a secured lot near University Arena, where Obama was to speak.

Wetmore, who conducted the internal investigation of Laster's conduct that day, wrote in her report that Laster flashed his badge again when he arrived at the secured lot. That prompted WMU parking-enforcement officer Timothy Buskirk to give Laster "special consideration" and not "confront him about parking in the secured lot, which is closer to the event venue than the parking lots to be used by other ticket holders for the event," according to the report.

As Laster entered the lot, KDPS Lt. Tom Hemingway spotted his black Jeep and asked Buskirk who was inside the SUV.

"Buskirk advised, 'He is one of you guys, he has a badge just like yours,'" Hemingway wrote in a June 8 memo to Wetmore.

Before Hemingway reached Laster, Public Safety officers Mike May and Mark Ochsenkehl told Wetmore they saw Laster's vehicle, as he was parking it, hit a state police cruiser occupied by Trooper Andrew Jamrog. Jamrog told Wetmore the collision caused minor damage to Laster's vehicle.

Jamrog said Laster was rude to him following the crash. After Jamrog asked Laster if he was OK, Jamrog said Laster responded, "Is Jenny going to be OK?"

Jamrog told Wetmore he assumed Laster's use of "Jenny" was a reference to then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Jamrog said Laster walked away after the exchange. Jamrog did not pursue Laster because there was little damage to Laster's vehicle and none to the cruiser. Jamrog also told Wetmore he was under orders from his post commander "not to become involved with any non-emergency incidents, as we were the contingency motorcade for the president if need be."

Hemingway confronted Laster a short time later in the parking lot, and told Laster he could not park his SUV there. "I have had tickets for this event before you have ever been involved with anything," Laster responded, according to Hemingway.

Later in the conversation, Hemingway recalled that Laster told him to "bump your brakes and get the (expletive) out of my face."

"I cannot quote the last portion of this statement, but it was to the effect of ... get the (expletive) out of my face ... get the hell out of my face," Hemingway told Wetmore.

Hemingway said he told Laster to move his vehicle or that it would be towed, but Laster continued walking toward University Arena with his family. Hemingway drove away and immediately contacted Wetmore and Brian Uridge, assistant chief of KDPS, according to documents.

'My brother is Secret Service'

WMU Public Safety Officer Daniel Sanderson and Lt. Brian Crandall didn't recognize Laster when he approached them at the main entrance to the university's recreation center. Sanderson and Crandall had been assigned to the front entrance of the center, a secured area which was restricted to Secret Service agents and on-duty police personnel.

Laster, according to Sanderson and Crandall, asked several times to enter the restricted area, telling officers his brother was a Secret Service agent working inside the center and Laster "wanted to contact him." Wetmore later determined that Laster's brother, who is assigned with the Secret Service in Washington, D.C., was not in Kalamazoo during Obama's visit.

"Officer Sanderson advised Laster came up to him and he immediately could tell Laster was intoxicated by the 'odor on him and the way Laster was staggering around,'" Wetmore wrote. "Sanderson said that Laster tried to get through the doorway and he had to tell him several times that it was a secured area and he couldn't go through. ... Sanderson said that Laster just would not listen and kept trying to get through."

As Laster left the secured area, Public Safety Sgt. Timothy Randall saw him and Laster walked to the passenger side of Randall's SUV.

Randall said in a memo to Wetmore that he told Laster he couldn't enter the recreation center through the main entrance and needed to enter through a screening area located on the other side of the building.

Randall said Laster did not acknowledge his instructions; then he asked Laster if he heard what he told him.

"He yelled back at me in an aggressive voice and said, 'Did you hear me?'" Randall wrote in the memo. "Right then, I noticed that he was highly intoxicated and wasn't going to listen to me or anyone else. I could smell a strong odor of intoxicants emitting from his breath while talking with me.

"Based on my 30 years of experience in drunk-driving enforcement, it was obvious that he was very intoxicated."

Randall said Laster eventually began walking toward the proper screening area after their conversation, but while heading that way he tried to cut through a secured area between two buildings. Randall said in his memo to Wetmore that he told Laster he could not walk through the secure area and then called Capt. Donald Webster.

Webster observed Laster walking in a secured area under a catwalk near the recreation center. When the two men met up and Webster told Laster he could not walk through the area, Laster responded: "I told you I don't need you, I got this handled, my brother is Secret Service," according to a memo Webster wrote to Wetmore recounting their conversation.

"I observed that his eyes were red and glassy and I could smell intoxicants emanating from him," Webster said. "At this point, I gave PSO Laster a direct order to go to the front of the building like everyone else. I then turned to PSO (Aaron) Weidbrauk and advised that if PSO Laster continued in the unauthorized area that he be arrested."

Hadley declined to comment when asked by the Gazette if officers should have arrested Laster or asked him to leave the event.

It appears, from the documents, that Laster left the secured area and next had contact with Officer Jeremy Shaffer and Inspector Vernon Coakley. Shaffer wrote in a memo that he and Coakley were assigned to Lot 18 on campus, along with Secret Service agents. Shaffer first noticed Laster's wife and two daughters in a restricted area at a set of tents near Lot 18 and was told by Laster's wife that they were waiting for her husband, who was inside one of the tents speaking with Secret Service agents.

Shaffer said he and Coakley had contact with Laster near Shaffer's cruiser and that during their conversation Laster looked toward Coakley "and started rubbing the side of his forehead with his middle finger and it became apparent to me that (Laster) was intending to communicate to (Coakley) his dislike of him." Shaffer said Coakley confronted Laster about the gesture before Laster walked away with his family toward University Arena for Obama's speech.

Reports show Laster entered the arena and later assisted in providing aid to Kalamazoo resident Jerry Mason, who collapsed during Obama's speech.

'He violated federal law'

After reviewing Wetmore's investigation of Laster, Harris submitted a two-page memo to Hadley recommending the officer be terminated. Harris said Laster had been disciplined "more than twenty times since 1991" and that most of the incidents that resulted in the discipline pertained to "allegations of disrespect to others or insubordination."

"With more than twenty years with the department ... Laster continues the same pattern of disrespecting co-workers and supervisors," Harris wrote in his memo. "This time ... Laster's conduct involved the security of the President of the United States. He not only violated department policies and procedures, he violated federal law by attempting to use his office to breach presidential security."

Hadley declined to comment when asked by the Gazette if officers should have arrested Laster or asked him to leave the event.

It also appears Laster was never charged by federal authorities. Harris told Hadley in the memo "the U.S. Attorney and the Secret Service has chosen not to push the issue."

Contact Rex Hall Jr. at rhall@kalamazoogazette.com or 269-388-7784.