A full-time Hellertown police officer who was terminated from the force in September after being charged in a DUI case is back on duty in the borough, after an arbitrator ruled he should be reinstated.
“An arbitrator ruled back in mid-January that Officer (Tim) Piotrowski should be reinstated immediately upon issuance of the ruling without back pay,” Hellertown Borough Council President Tom Rieger said in a statement Tuesday.
“In accordance with that ruling, Ofc. Piotrowski was re-certified to perform the duties of a police officer and placed back on active duty,” Rieger said.
No public announcement was made at the time of Piotrowski’s reinstatement, although borough personnel matters are often discussed behind closed doors, in accordance with privacy laws that relate to employment practices.
According to the minutes from council’s Feb. 16 meeting, personnel matters were discussed in an executive session following the meeting.
Piotrowski, 51, of Zionsville, was terminated by borough council for “conduct unbecoming a police officer” following an investigation by Police Chief Robert Shupp, according to a statement that was read and shared at the Sept. 8, 2015 council meeting.
Later it was revealed that the conduct in question was a DUI-related accident in Upper Milford Township last August, in which Pennsylvania State Police said Piotrowski drove off a country road and into a cornfield before getting back on his motorcycle, only to lose control of it again and slide through an intersection.
His blood alcohol content (BAC) at the time was determined by authorities to be .22 percent–nearly three times the legal limit–and he was charged with DUI-Highest Rate of Alcohol; a charge reserved for individuals determined to have had a BAC of .16 or higher while driving.
Piotrowski was also charged with DUI and the summary offenses of careless driving and disregarding a traffic lane. The DUI charges were both classified as first offense misdemeanors.
According to online public court records, the summary charges were later withdrawn by Lehigh County prosecutors and Piotrowski was accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program for first-time DUI offenders.
Conditions for acceptance into the program are that no one was killed or seriously injured as a result of the applicant’s DUI, and that no child under the age of 14 was in or on the vehicle at the time of the DUI stop.
Acceptance into the ARD program–which the website DUIArrestHelp.com states is “unique to Pennsylvania DUI law”–is at the discretion of the district attorney overseeing the case.
Once the program has been successfully completed, an individual’s record is expunged of the DUI charge that landed them in it.
According to court records, Piotrowski was ordered to complete 12 months of ARD by Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony on Oct. 12, 2015.
He was granted early termination from the program on April 15, after six months.
During the course of completing his ARD, in December 2015, a motion was approved by Anthony to allow Piotrowski to “possess a firearm in furtherance of this (sic) employment as a law enforcement officer,” according to the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas Criminal Docket for his case.
He was also required to pay more than $2,500 in court costs and other fees.
Piotrowski was originally hired by the Hellertown Police Department as a part-time officer, and at one time headed the department’s former Block Watch program.
