Phoenix officer gets reprimand for appearing on porn Web site
INTHEDOGHOUSE
Brent Whiting
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 27, 2002 12:00:00
More information
• Read the dismissal notice the Chandler Police Department sent to Officer
Ronald Dible about his involvement in a porn Web site:
You will need to download Adobe Acrobat to view the pdf files. You can download
Adobe Acrobat for free by clicking here.
• Page one of the dimissal notice sent to Officer Ronald Dibble.
• Page two.
• Officer Ronald Dibble's response to his pre-dismissal notice.
• Page two of Dibble's response.
• Page three.
A Phoenix police officer who engaged in sex acts displayed on his wife's
Internet site has been ordered to undergo supervisory counseling, the most
lenient form of departmental discipline.
Robert Marshall, 27, a two-year member of the Phoenix force, has also shut down
the Web site.
The action was announced Tuesday, four days after Ron Dible, 32, a Chandler
motorcycle officer, was fired for lying about joining with his wife in sex acts
on the Web.
Neither Marshall, a patrol officer assigned to the Cactus Park Precinct in
northwest Phoenix, nor his wife, April, a Phoenix bartender, would comment on
the case other than to say he plans to appeal the discipline order.
"I'll provide additional comment after I speak with legal counsel," Marshall
said.
April Marshall said she hopes to be able to speak out soon, because she wants
the couple's side of the story to be told.
Levi Bolton, vice president of the Phoenix police union, said both the Phoenix
and Chandler cases raise troubling legal and constitutional issues.
On one hand, the public has an interest in the conduct of its police officers,
Bolton said. On the other hand, police officers enjoy free-speech rights that
they shouldn't have to forfeit just because they carry guns and badges, he
said.
"We're struggling to find out where the line can be drawn," Bolton said.
Marshall came under investigation Aug. 15 after police learned about a Web
business that was started by his wife nearly two months earlier, according to
an internal investigative report.
The site was launched June 24, but earlier in the year, Marshall and his wife
set up a "swinger's club" chat room on the Internet to promote the venture, the
report says.
The Web site contained photos of adults, including the Marshalls, "involved in
a variety of sex acts," the report says.
Marshall told police the photos were taken during various parties at the home
of friends, none of them city workers, the report says.
The site offered a free look at the snapshots, as well as a "member's only"
section that required credit-card billing.
Investigators found Marshall in violation of a department policy that prohibits
officers and their spouses from engaging in adult-oriented businesses that
"would bring discredit on the department."
Marshall denies any wrongdoing, but believed it was in his best interest to
shut down the Web site after he got word last September of the internal
investigation, the report says.
He told investigators there "was no identifiable portion of me" in the
photographs, so his involvement was limited and should not concern police.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0227website27.html
Link also contains pictures