Original Article News Update Smutty e-mail will cost cops By Mike Branom and Brian Powell Tribune April 1, 2006 More than one out of every five Mesa police employees have been recommended for discipline following an investigation into the inappropriate use of the citys e-mail system, the police department announced Friday. The department is recommending 148 unpaid suspensions ranging from two days to six weeks for sending emails depicting sexual acts or nudity, and 134 written reprimands for sending jokes or cartoons of a sexual or offensive nature. The 282 affected employees represent about 21 percent of the departments 1,327 sworn and civilian employees. (The suspensions) are not going to occur all at once, police spokesman Sgt. Chuck Trapani said. Theyll be spread out over a period of time to ensure no loss of service to the community will occur. On Feb. 17, Mesa City Manager Chris Brady announced a citywide investigation into e-mail abuse that began in October after a sexual harassment complaint. A month later, Mesa released 229 employee names and their e-mails from nearly every city department following a Tribune public records request. A review found hundreds of e-mail images and jokes that included sexual acts, nudity, racial and religious slurs, violent photos or bad language. The police departments names and e-mails were not included because their investigation had not been completed. Brady said Friday the city still intends to release names and e-mails of police department employees, possibly as early as next week. Police employees have been learning since last week of the discipline recommended against them, Trapani said. Because they still have the opportunity to appeal, names were not released, he said. Fabian Cota, vice president of the Mesa Police Association union, said he has issues with the citys handling of the investigation. All avenues remain open to ensure our members get due process, said Cota, adding that his association will represent officers in what he anticipates to be a high number of appeals. The city developed its own severity rankings to determine discipline. The most severe was a video or images of sex acts. The next level involved videos or pictures of nudity with sexual content, followed by nudity without sexual content, discriminatory images or jokes, and offensive cartoons, jokes or language. Nobody in the police department was singled out for sending racial or religiously discriminatory e-mails. Employees from the financial services, city attorneys office, general services department, development services, utilities department and fire departments were all disciplined for such e-mails. All Mesa employees are required to sign a new e-mail policy by Friday, and then again at annual reviews. Contact Mike Branom by email, or phone (480) 898-6536. Contact Brian Powell by email, or phone (480) 898-6514.