NASHUA – Police officers, firefighters or other public employees arrested for driving while intoxicated often endure the glare of publicity on top of everything else, and a conviction can hit them harder than the average Joe.

While the city fire department has a “three strikes” policy for DWI convictions, a single drunken driving conviction can jeopardize a police officer’s job, city officials said.

With the exception of those who drive for a living, most people don’t lose their jobs as a result of a single drunken driving conviction, according to lawyers who specialize in DWI cases.

“Most employers, I don’t think, would fire someone for DWI,” said attorney David Hynes, of Nashua, who specializes in DWI cases.

The same rule of thumb applies even to some public safety workers and other public professions, such as teachers, local officials said. In general, employees are too valuable to be cast off lightly, they said.

A Nashua police officer and firefighter are among the latest in a string of high-profile DWI arrests around the state, with varying consequences for the accused.

Nashua firefighter Jason Poloski kept his firefighting job after his first off-duty DWI conviction last year, and department policy suggests his second arrest Sept. 24 won’t cost him his job, either.

Poloski was charged with DWI, second offense, after his truck rear-ended Mayor Donnalee Lozeau on Lake Street, police said. No one was injured in the crash.

Poloski was scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Nashua District Court, but on Thursday his lawyers filed a waiver of arraignment and plea of innocence on his behalf. His trial hadn’t yet been scheduled.

More recently, police officer Richard Mosscrop was arrested on a class B misdemeanor DWI charge after his truck rolled over a guardrail in Merrimack on Oct. 16. Mosscrop pleaded innocent, and his trial is scheduled for Nov. 17 in Merrimack District Court.

Despite these two arrests just weeks apart, Fire Rescue Chief Brian Morrissey and Police Chief Donald Conley said it’s extremely uncommon for police or firefighters to be charged with drunken driving, on or off duty.

Both chiefs said they couldn’t recall another such incident during their tenures with their departments, and both expressed embarrassment over the two recent cases.

“It’s certainly not a positive situation for the Nashua Fire Rescue,” Morrissey said. “I’m certain that most of our members are embarrassed by that.”

Job action

As in most workplaces, drunken driving or just drunkenness on the job would be grounds for immediate termination, both chiefs said, but off-duty conduct is a stickier issue.

Nashua Fire Rescue policy allows firefighters to keep working after a DWI conviction, but they’re required to notify the department, according to the department’s Driver’s License Loss Policy. Employees who fail to notify the department of the loss of their license face immediate termination.

Firefighters can’t drive fire trucks without a license, and a firefighter assigned to drive must forfeit the position if his or her license is suspended for more than one year. Any employees who lose their license are required to complete any counseling or treatment recommended by the Employee Assistance Program.

A firefighter or other employee who loses his or her license for a second time within seven years of the first faces unpaid suspension for 60 days, or half of the time the license is revoked. A third strike within seven years “will result in automatic termination.”

Poloski was out on paid medical leave at the time of his arrest Sept. 24, and he remains on medical leave, Morrissey said. Morrissey declined to say when that leave began.

Poloski previously was arrested for DWI on the night of June 28 after being stopped on Amherst Street. He later pleaded no contest to a DWI charge and was fined $500, Nashua District Court records show.

His license was revoked for nine months, but with the understanding the revocation would be reduced to three months if he promptly enrolled in the Community Alcohol Information Program. He did, and it was, court records show.

Mosscrop, a 12-year veteran police officer, was placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest, but Thursday he returned to restricted duty at the police station, Conley said.

Police are still conducting an internal investigation on the circumstances surrounding Mosscrop’s arrest and will review his status once it’s complete, Conley said.

“We want to make sure that there weren’t other issues that weren’t necessarily criminal but could be in violation of our rules of conduct,” Conley said.

While a more serious criminal conviction would cost police officers their job, Conley said DWI and other class B misdemeanors fall into more of a gray area. Unlike a violation, a class B misdemeanor is technically a crime, but unlike other crimes, jail isn’t among the potential penalties. Until two years ago, first-offense DWI was a violation in New Hampshire.

“Is it job-threatening? Absolutely,” Conley said. However, he added, “The possibility exists that you will not be fired.”

For now, Conley noted, “Mr. Mosscrop is like any other person. … He’s innocent of DWI until proven guilty.”

Like any other person, Mosscrop also still has his license for 30 days after his arrest, until the administrative license suspension takes effect. A valid driver’s license is among the job requirements for police officers, Conley said.

If convicted, Mosscrop is sure to face “substantial” disciplinary action, which could include unpaid suspension, restricted duty and loss of rank, Conley said. Depending on what the department’s investigation finds and concludes, he could also lose his job.

“Just because someone gets arrested for DWI doesn’t mean they have an alcohol problem,” Conley said, but the department generally tries to help an officer who develops a drinking problem before it becomes an employment problem, he said.

Police don’t have a policy specific to DWI, Conley said. They have a more general policy:

“Officers are expected to obey any and all laws,” both state and federal, Conley said.

Other cases

Police and firefighters aren’t the only public officials to run afoul of DWI laws and create conflicts with their employer.

Earlier this year, a state liquor commissioner lost his job before he was even convicted. The three-member commission regulates the sale of alcohol in New Hampshire, and Gov. John Lynch argued that Richard Simard’s refusal to take a breath test after being stopped by Gilford Police in April was “simply unacceptable for a liquor commissioner.”

Simard later pleaded guilty to a DWI charge, The Associated Press reported.

(New Hampshire has the highest breath-test refusal rate of any state, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A 2005 report to Congress states that more than 80 percent of people stopped for DWI in New Hampshire refused breath or blood testing. No other state topped 50 percent.)

Earlier this month, Concord City Councilor Fred Keach – a former police officer – was arrested for aggravated DWI while leaving a football game, driving minors in the vehicle, the Concord Monitor reported.

Last year in Nashua, Ward 8 Alderman David MacLaughlin survived a bid to remove him from office, but not the November elections, after a third DWI conviction in Massachusetts.

Newport Police officer Joseph Collins resigned promptly after his arrest for DWI last July in Bradford, where he was allegedly driving drunk with his 4-year-old child in the car.

Attorney Ryan Russman, of Exeter and Portsmouth, specializes in DWI cases, and also serves as a volunteer firefighter. Russman said that in his view, public employees caught driving drunk have it harder than average citizens.

Police and firefighters do enjoy union representation and can’t be terminated without due process, Russman noted, but they’re also held to a higher standard.

“Based on my experience, the fact is that if you hold public office, unfortunately, there is a presumption that you are held to a higher standard,” Russman said. “It’s grossly unfair, because it’s a direct contradiction to the presumption of innocence.

“There is such public awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving. … Once the accusation is made, it’s very difficult to come back from the brink.”

Policy changes

The Merrimack School District wrestled with alcohol issues last year, when a French teacher at the upper middle school was found to have made her daughter blow into the ignition lock on her car so she could get to work.

Lisa DiNucci, of Merrimack, was required to install the device on her car as a result of an aggravated DWI in Milford in May 2008, and on April 2, 2009, she was charged with circumventing the device by having her daughter blow into it on at least two occasions.

DiNucci was suspended and later resigned from her job, sparing officials from deciding her fate. She was subsequently convicted of the charge.

The Merrimack School District has since adopted a “drug-free workplace” policy, drafted by the New Hampshire School Board Association, but the district had fewer guidelines in place when it handled DiNucci’s case, Superintendent Marge Chiafrey said.

Nashua School District officials are reviewing the same model policy and considering adopting it with revisions, Superintendent Mark Conrad said last week.

The policy deals only with issues in the workplace, however, Chiafrey said. School officials likely would never know if a teacher were arrested or convicted of DWI unless someone tipped them off, Chiafrey said, and the district has no policy suggesting that an off-duty DWI conviction would threaten a teacher’s job, she said.

Any criminal conviction could potentially affect a Nashua School District employee’s job, Conrad said, but like Merrimack, the district has no formal policies in place regarding DWI convictions. In considering a DWI conviction, Conrad said administrators would have to decide whether it affected the employee’s ability to do the job.

“We would have to weigh the impact on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.