Cop with two DUIs fired

AURORA | An Aurora police officer arrested on DUI charges twice in less than a year has been fired, police said Wednesday.

Officer Marc Sears, a six-year Aurora police veteran previously assigned to the police academy, was fired Jan. 5, a spokeswoman for the department said. 

Sears was previously suspended for a month following his second arrest, which happened last March in Parker after police there say he crashed his SUV into a light pole while driving drunk.

That arrest came while Sears had a trial pending on DUI charges stemming from May 2009, when he crashed a motorcycle in Parker.

Sears was eventually convicted of DUI for the first arrest and his lawyer, Chris Charles, said Wednesday that charges in the second case were dropped in September and Sears was charged only with careless driving. 

Charles said he expects Sears to appeal his firing. 

“Essentially, they terminated him for having a careless driving ticket,” Charles said. 

Sears appealed his conviction in the first DUI case and is awaiting a judge’s ruling, Charles said. 

Police declined to comment on Sears’ case Wednesday other than to say he was fired. 

Last summer, when Sears’ arrest first came to light, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said the department was taking the case very seriously but declined to discuss the case further. 

He did, however, point to a former Aurora police officer who resigned in 2008 after a second DUI arrest to avoid being fired. 

According to Parker police documents, Sears’ first arrest happened May 24, 2009 after he crashed his motorcycle. 

He suffered a head injury in the crash and was taken to a hospital where a Parker police officer obtained a sample of Sears’ blood while Sears was heavily sedated. Based on a blood test, he was later cited for DUI. 

Sears’ lawyer argued at trial that the blood was taken improperly and that Sears never consented to giving his blood to police.

A jury disagreed and returned a guilty verdict against Sears on all counts, including DUI, driving without a motorcycle endorsement and careless driving.

Charles said in Sears appeal he will argue that the blood test was improper.

In the March case, police in Parker say Sears told the officer at the scene that he swerved to avoid a deer and slammed into the light pole, causing his SUV to roll onto its passenger side.

The officer detected alcohol on Sears’ breath and Sears said he had “one beer” before driving home. He refused a breath test.

Charles said witnesses planned to testify that Sears was not intoxicated the night of the crash.