Pubdate: Tue, 13 Aug 2002
Source: Deseret News (UT)
Copyright: 2002 Deseret News Publishing Corp.
Contact:  http://www.desnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/124
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

POLICE OFFICER'S NAME GETS HER IN HOT WATER

El Paso, Texas, police officer Christine Lynn O'Kane's name appeared on her 
identification tag and e-mails as C. O'KANE.

"When you put it together, it spells 'cocaine,' " said police spokesman Al 
Velarde.

O'Kane resigned from the El Paso Police Department on April 6, 2000, to 
take care of her ailing mother, the El Paso Times reported. She had a good 
service record, and her work file included a recommendation that she be 
reinstated if she reapplied in the future.

But when O'Kane reapplied with the department months later, she found it no 
longer supported her reinstatement.

Police management cited the "inappropriate" use of her name as the basis 
for their denial.

O'Kane had been using "C. O'Kane" in e-mails including a goodbye message to 
co-workers she sent in April 2000.

"In reading the (e-mail) header, it is clear that the intention was to 
refer to the drug cocaine," states an April 2, 2001, e-mail from Assistant 
Police Chief Richard Wiles to the department's personnel director.

It later continues: "It placed the department in a position of being 
subjected to public ridicule and disrespect."

O'Kane appealed her case to the Civil Service Commission on May 24, 2001, 
and the commission supported her position.

She was rehired in September 2001 and now works as a police officer in El 
Paso's Lower Valley. She has since switched to her maiden name, Whitaker.
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