STATE POLICE SEEK FIRING OF OFFICER IN POT CASE

SPRINGFIELD--Mark Atchison was at a family party when he walked
outside and saw two family members smoking marijuana. But the Illinois
State Police master sergeant didn't arrest them or lecture them. He
didn't even turn away.

"For some stupid reason--I don't know whether it was to relieve their
tension or it was total stupidity on my part--I actually took the
joint and did a couple of hits," Atchison later told the State Police
Merit Board.

State Police tried to fire Atchison after he tested positive in a
random drug test. But he argued that, as a good employee with a clean
record, he deserved a second chance. The merit board agreed,
suspending him for six months without pay.

Now the State Police are suing to overturn the ruling or have the case
reconsidered.

"It would be very difficult to explain to people in the general public
why we would tolerate actions among our own officers that we put
people in jail for," Daniel Kent, State Police deputy director of
operations, said in the July 1999 merit board hearing.

Three officers have been fired for positive drug tests since testing
began in 1992, State Police spokesman Capt. Dave Sanders said. Another
firing is pending, but Atchison's is the first case in which the
officer was not discharged.

Atchison, 42, of Pawnee, has been on paid administrative leave from
his work as a police pilot since the suspension ended in November.

He would not comment on the case, nor would his attorney or State
Police, who are paying former State Police Director Jeremy Margolis, a
politically connected Chicago lawyer, $19,975 for "technical
assistance."