A Tucson police sergeant who retired two months ago after being arrested on suspicion of drinking on the job pleaded guilty Monday to driving under the influence and was placed on 18 months probation.
Robert Lund will also have to serve 48 hours in jail, complete 24 hours of community service and attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim impact panel, said Tucson city prosecutor Laura Brynwood.
If Lund, 44, fails to comply with all of the rules of his probation, he could have to serve 58 days of a suspended jail sentence imposed by City Magistrate Nikki Chayet, Brynwood said.
Lund's difficulties began Jan. 29 when someone called 911 around 11:30 p.m. to report a possible drunken driver near South Harrison Road and East 22nd Street.
Officers found a 1999 Ford Taurus — an unmarked city police car — in a parking lot on the corner, police said at the time.
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Lund was asked to give breath samples because officers believed he was intoxicated. The tests yielded blood-alcohol levels of 0.202 and 0.183, far exceeding the DUI level of 0.08.
He was arrested on a variety of DUI charges, including extreme DUI.
An internal-affairs investigation determined Lund drank beer at the beginning of his shift and later on in the day while he was gambling on dog races.
Lund also admitted to drinking a bottle of tequila while on duty in his unmarked police car, the documents say.
At the time of his arrest, Lund headed up a Community Response Team, which consists of seven officers who work mostly in plainclothes and deal with neighborhood problems like prostitution, drugs and graffiti.
During their investigation, authorities also learned one of Lund's subordinates, Officer David Haggerty, had been drinking with Lund that day.
Haggerty and Lund resigned from the department March 18, one day before they were to go before a police termination-review committee.
In an interview one week later, Haggerty told the Arizona Daily Star he joined Lund at Tucson McGraw's Cantina and Jeff's Pub at Lund's request.
He was under the impression they were looking for a suspect and trying to develop leads, Haggerty said. He drank one beer and gambled in an effort to blend in, he said.
He and Lund parted ways more than an hour before the 911 call, Haggerty said.
"I don't want to be painted as two officers in plainclothes who were neglecting their duties and running wild, because that's not the case," he said during the March interview. "Had we developed a lead and made an arrest that night, we would be receiving commendations, not termination."
Haggerty said that at no time did he feel he was intoxicated and that he was simply following the orders of his supervisor, which was to generate leads at bars as they had done in the past without any problems.
The Tucson Police Department said the gambling and drinking that occurred that night were not work-related.
Department policy states that no plainclothes officer shall drink or purchase alcoholic beverages while on duty except when necessary in the performance of duty and then only with the approval of a supervisor. The same policy applies to gambling on duty.
Assistant Chief John Leavitt said neither Haggerty nor Lund had an undercover assignment and that frequenting bars in that capacity was going against policy.
Both Haggerty and Lund had worked for the department more than 20 years.
