Three Marana police officers and a civilian employee of the Police Department were placed on administrative leave Tuesday after a night out at a popular restaurant ended in criminal charges for at least one officer, a Marana police spokesman said.

Seven-year veteran Officer John Destefano, 34, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, a misdemeanor, police Sgt. Tim Brunenkant said.

Destefano has a history of reprimands, Brunenkant said. The officer was fired in 2006 after being arrested twice in December 2005, for DUI and for domestic violence, according to a past article in the Citizen. He was convicted of the DUI charge but the domestic violence charge was dismissed. Destefano appealed to the town and was rehired, Brunenkant said.

The other officers placed on leave Tuesday were Joseph Castillo, who has four years of service, and three-year veteran Mario Williams, he said. The civilian employee is Tina Davis, who has worked for the department for 10 years, he said.

The Aug. 2 incident that got the four placed on paid leave occurred about 10 p.m. in the parking lot of Chuy’s Baja Broiler, 4185 W. Ina Road, near North Oldfather Road, Brunenkant said.

He said Destefano and Davis, who were off-duty, were seen leaving the parking lot in a truck Destefano was driving. As he was pulling out of the lot, Destefano hit a parked car, Brunenkant said.

After Destefano and Davis got out to look at the damage, Davis got back in the truck and Destefano got in another car and both drove away, Brunenkant said. No note or information was left with the damaged vehicle, Brunenkant said.

The investigation started the night of the incident, he said. Destefano was traced through his license plate after witnesses called police.

Brunenkant said it took time to locate the owner of the vehicle that was struck. It had damage to the hood.

Williams, who was also off-duty, had been with Davis and Destefano inside the restaurant but was not outside when the damage occurred, Brunenkant said.

Brunenkant didn’t say why Williams was under investigation and said police were investigating whether Destefano, Williams and Davis had been drinking.

Castillo was on duty as the incident’s reporting officer.

“There are questions about (Castillo’s) investigation,” Brunenkant said, “and the quality of the investigation that night.”

All four will remain on leave until the investigation is completed, Brunenkant said, adding that should take about two weeks.

He said he did not know if Destefano’s disciplinary history would have a bearing on the outcome of the current investigation.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Local, Special. Tags for this post: Breaking News, Crime/Safety, Local-Crime/Safety, page-a02, Ryn Gargulinski, Special-Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.