Diana Penner

diana.penner@indystar.com

Santos Cortez, an IMPD police officer, was on duty, behind the wheel of his squad car, on June 11, 2012.

Jerrel Watkins, private citizen, with a blood-alcohol content later determined to be .29, was behind the wheel of a Ford sedan.

Cortez was dispatched to a call on West Washington Street.

There was a crash.

Watkins, 27, at the time, eventually pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, causing serious injury. He was sentenced to the maximum. On paper, that was three years.

In real life, Watkins served 368 days behind bars.

Cortez, 34 at the time of the crash, went to the hospital — and back to the hospital, repeatedly. He figures he has spent 17 of the past 26 months in one hospital or another. Roughly 510 days.

And now Watkins is back behind bars — awaiting trial on a new drunken-driving charge.

And Cortez is back in the hospital, healing from one surgery and waiting for another — his 23rd — to be scheduled.

"In all actuality," he said, "it's saddening to know that the victim — although I don't like to call myself a victim — gets sentenced to more time than the criminal."

Mounting challenges

There are many frustrations for Cortez these days.

He can't seem to stave off new medical complications long enough to start his new job with the city, or keep at physical therapy to build strength.

The man convicted of the crime that left him paralyzed was free to drink and drive again.

And particularly troubling to him is that, with painful frequency, fellow police officers also are being arrested for drunken driving.

"It feels like a slap in the face," Cortez, now 36, said of those police officers. "Like getting stabbed in the back."

Cortez was dressed in a blue-and-white hospital gown during a recent interview in his room at Kindred Hospital in Greenwood. He sat in a wheelchair, although he said he's supposed to spend most of his time in the bed with a specially engineered mattress designed to support his frame and allow for healing. Formerly clean-shaven, he had grown a thick beard — a little protest, he joked, until he can go home.

His friends and family visit and Cortez remains upbeat and engaged with the world, following the news of the city. He's also bored to tears, he said, being stuck in a hospital room.

He was at IU Health Methodist Hospital, after his latest surgery, on July 5 — the day Watkins was arrested in Madison County on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Watkins had been freed from prison on Nov. 1, 2013, after serving the sentence for his drunken-driving conviction, and was released from probation on Feb. 2, 2014. On July 5, he was what is called "off paper." He was not being supervised or restricted; he had completed all of the legally required punishment for causing the accident that paralyzed Cortez.

Shortly after his July arrest, Watkins was released on $500 bond. At an Aug. 4 court hearing, prosecutors successfully argued for a higher bond. Unless Watkins can come up with $20,000 bond, or there's a development in the case, he is expected to remain in jail until his March trial.

Stricter sentencing

Under new charging and sentencing guidelines that went into effect July 1, Watkins could face one to six years in prison if convicted of the Level 5 felony. And he would have to serve 75 percent of any sentence, as opposed to getting day-for-a-day "good time" credit.

"Well, it's pretty sad that I've done more days in the hospital than he's been in prison," Cortez said of Watkins' first stretch.

Cortez, who has five children in a blended family with his wife, Fran, understands Watkins was charged and sentenced as aggressively as possible the first time around, and that all proper rules were followed after his release.

Still, it rankles.

Cortez has a civil suit pending against Watkins and will be monitoring the progress of his current case.

Cortez also has a lot of pressing business that he'd really like to get to when he is physically able. He'd like to be home with his family so that he doesn't birthdays, or the first day of school. He wants to be cleared to do physical therapy aggressively so he can regain or maintain as much physical strength and mobility as possible. And he wants to tackle his new job at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's armory, where he'll be maintaining weapons for officers, and to enjoy the independence he'll have with a city-issued, hand control-equipped SUV.

Cortez went through months of "driver's ed" at a rehabilitation facility to satisfy requirements for driving the vehicle, grumbling that he "got it" after one day. "I mean, driving is driving, you know?" The day he was issued the car, he had a doctor's appointment — and was admitted to the hospital because of an infection.

His next surgery, which might be scheduled by early September, is related to problems that evolved out of his initial injury. In the crash, vertebrae from about his shoulder blades to the middle of his back were damaged and had to be fused.

Subsequently, likely in part because of the additional burden on his frame, vertebrae below the original injury, down to about his tailbone, also failed. Those vertebrae also were fused, and screws were placed in strategic places, including his hip, to hold everything together. But some of the screws then became loose, part of the reason he's stuck at Kindred now — to allow bone to grow and secure those screws.

Somehow, Cortez's sense of humor has remained intact — he chuckled at a crack that clearly, he has a screw loose.

Zero-tolerance stance

Second only to being fully available to his family, there's nothing that Cortez wants more than to be back on his beat. He'd give anything to be healed, walking and back in uniform, patrolling the streets.

That's why it makes him furious when he hears about police officers getting busted for drunken driving. In the past several months, a handful of law-enforcement officers — most with IMPD — have made the news after arrests for driving under the influence. Some have been terminated, some suspended and others are awaiting final decisions.

Cortez doesn't condemn social drinking — just driving after drinking. And he supports offering counseling to those who need and seek help.

But he is absolute when it comes to law-enforcement officers caught drinking and driving.

"If you are arrested for drunk driving, you should lose your job," he said.

He insists on that condition for an arrest, rather than a conviction, because some drunken-driving arrests are subsequently pleaded down to, for instance, reckless driving. And he would apply the policy to on- or off-duty arrests, in squad cars or in private vehicles. It's the alcohol component that should disqualify a police officer, Cortez argues.

It comes down partly to credibility, Cortez said: A police officer with a drunken-driving arrest isn't in a position to arrest and testify in court against a civilian arrested on the same charge.

"Can you imagine the defense attorney asking, 'Officer, how many DUIs do you have on your record?'"

IMPD's current policy provides for dismissal the first time an officer is found to have a blood-alcohol level of .02 in a city-owned vehicle. That level is far below the .08 level at which drivers are considered impaired under Indiana law.

However, officers found to have hit the .08 level in a private vehicle are subject to a suspension of at least 30 days on a first offense, and dismissal after a second occurrence.

In between hospital stays, Cortez nearly completed IMPD's Leadership Academy, a four-week professional development program. All Cortez has left to finish is the research paper. He chose to look at the alcohol policies of comparably sized police departments, and when he can finish the writing, plans to recommend that IMPD adopt a zero-tolerance policy.

A second chance?

The Leadership Academy papers are often reviewed by the department's top brass for good ideas and suggestions, but aren't official recommendations.

Indianapolis Police Chief Rick Hite said he understands and respects Cortez's advocacy of a stricter policy, but said the department also must recognize the basic humanity of police officers. They, like civilians, have pressures, stresses and worries, and deserve a chance to deal with those problems.

"We have one of the toughest alcohol policies in the country," Hite said, but supported the components that take circumstances into account and, in some instances, give officers a second chance.

Cortez, who isn't seeking a confrontational campaign on the issue but is firm on it, said his experience has left him with the belief that on this issue, police officers ought not to get that break.

"You are the police," he said. "You should be held to a higher standard."

Call Star reporter Diana Penner at (317) 444-6249 and follow her on Twitter @dianapenner

How sentencing occurred

Jerrel Watkins received the maximum sentence of three years in prison after pleading guilty to causing the crash that paralyzed Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Santos Cortez. But Watkins actually served 368 days behind bars. How? Here's the breakdown:

• Sentence of 1,095 days total (three years), of which 915 were to be served with the Department of Correction and 180 on probation with Marion County Community Corrections.

• Credit for 113 days served in jail before sentencing.

• Credit for 135 days with Community Corrections for pre-trial home detention.

• Additional 45 days for a conduct violation while with DOC, for an attempted bribery.

When Watkins was sentenced on this charge, Indiana practiced a "day-for-a-day" reduction of sentences; as of July 1, 75 percent of prison time must be served.

But for Watkins, his DOC time was calculated this way:

• 915, cut in half = 458 (rounded up).

• 458 - 113 -135 = 210.

• 210 + 45 = 255 (served in state prison) + the 113 days served in county jail, for a total of 368.

Source: Indiana Department of Correction

Surgeries Santos Cortez has endured so far:

* Four spinal surgeries related to the initial injury.

* Two for problems with additional vertebrae not part of the initial injury.

* Two for feeding tubes.

* One to place a colostomy and 1 to remove it.

* Six surgeries on wounds that developed complications.

* Five surgeries on his heels, also complications of the initial injuries.

* One gall bladder surgery, also related to the injury.

Source: Santos Cortez