Police probe: Was arrest of Officer John Lewis justified?

SCHENECTADY -- Less than one week after Schenectady police officer John Lewis was found not guilty in his trial for driving while intoxicated, there's still an internal investigation on what went wrong during his arrest.

The prosecution presented more than 80 photos from the crash scene during the trial; two pictures featured an open beer bottle found in his car at the time of the crash. And another police officer testified that Lewis was drunk -- that he'd slurred his words and had bloodshot eyes. 

Prosecutors also presented video and audio from a police dashboard camera of the incident. The video shows  the camera is pointed to the back of the squad car instead of the front; and the exact unfolding of events isn't viewable.

The only audio that can be heard proceeds as follows: One officer is heard asking, "Sir, were you driving? Were you driving?"

Then, a hissed response from Lewis, the driver of the pulled-over vehicle: "Shut up. Are you mic'd?"

After that, there are nine seconds of rustling sounds with the audio -- and then the mic is abruptly turned off.

The evidence seemed compelling. But it apparently wasn't enough.

Schenectady Police Chief Mark Chaires says the incident remains the center of an internal investigation. During the trial, the police officer wearing the microphone testified that he'd reached back and inadvertently turned the mic off.

When asked if he buys that excuse, Chief Chaires responds, "The Department is looking into it."  

When asked if such internal investigation is something that has happened before or if it's easy to execute, the Chief says answering those questions is going to be a big part of the administrative investigation. "The other issue would be [that] we're convinced he was driving while intoxicated and the officers did not detect that," said Chief Chaires.

Two officers testified in court that Lewis was not drunk when they talked with him on the scene, and so they gave him a ride home. "Not to say you couldn't give an officer a ride, home but when you look at the totality of the circumstances, was it appropriate in this case when we're convinced he was driving while intoxicated?," said Chaires. "We don't think that would have been appropriate." 

The Schenectady Police Department says it's been investigating these circumstances since the incident in December 2008.  Chaires says the Department needed to wait this long until the trial was officially over.

While Chaires wouldn't give a timetable on when they expect to wrap up their internal investigation, he does say if it's found that the officers did something wrong -- for whatever reason -- serious charges could follow. "Official misconduct, tampering with a public record, perjury," said Chief Chaires.

While all these questions are still left unanswered, one question is not: "We want Officer Lewis off our payroll," Chaires stated unequivocally.

That decision will be up to an arbitrator who is expected to come to a conclusion sometime between mid- to late March.

Meanwhile, John Lewis remains in jail facing a number of other charges.