Fired police officer wants his job back; case going to arbitration
A day after being terminated from the Guthrie Police Department, Mark Bruning’s attorney says he wants his job back and is looking forward to an arbitration hearing.
The City of Guthrie announced on Monday that Bruning, a lieutenant on the force, was terminated immediately as recommended by a disciplinary hearing panel.
In a letter to Bruning, City Manager Sereniah Breland stated: “I have received a letter from Chief (Damon) Devereaux stating his recommendation, in agreement with the Disciplinary Hearing Panel, that your employment with the City of Guthrie be terminated.”
Related story: Guthrie police officer terminated on Monday
Related story: No decision made on the future of a Guthrie police officer
White says Bruning, who recently married his ex-wife, wrongfully arrested him and violated his civil rights following the Mumford and Sons concert on Sept. 7. He is now asking the City of Guthrie for $125,000 in compensation for the arrest.
White, whose attorney filed the complaint with the city, says Bruning had him arrested and taken to jail for public intoxication. In an interview with KOCO, White said, “I was not intoxicated whatsoever.”
White’s attorney told another television station there is no evidence to support the arrest.
“(He) never came up and administer any sort of field sobriety test. As far as we know there is no report that indicates any evidence that he was in fact intoxicated,” White’s attorney Eric Cotton said to KFOR.
However, Bruning’s attorney says he has witnesses ready to testify something completely different than what is being alleged.
“I have witnesses that will testify that Kyle White was in fact heavily intoxicated. I got witnesses that will testify that they met with him a week afterwards and he admitted to them he was intoxicated that night he was arrested,” Scott Adams told Guthrie News Page on the phone.
The high power attorney now says his client is ready to go through the arbitration process to get his job back.
“He has been there (GPD) for 18 years and still has a lot of friends. He wants his job back and wants to serve the people of Guthrie,” Adams said. “I feel confident that if we can have a fair and reasonable arbiter I think they will give him his job back with back pay.”
Adams also believes this scenario is being fueled with political pressure.
“There is also some political pressure obviously with a state senator coming forward and being a witness so I believe there is a lot of political stuff going on which should never get involve with personnel matters, but I think that has happen.”
The attorney did not want to go into the specifics on the political pressure.
“There will be some matters that will come out at the arbitration hearing that I think will be extremely relevant in that regard.”
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What goes around comes around . This is for all the people you have set up over your time there . I hope they proscute you .let you see what its like to pay to get out of the damage you cause people . Not so funny now is it . Mark
He has done more for the city of guthrie than anyone else ever will….set up???? child molesters???? criminals??? Someone like yourself???
If he had these “witnesses” at the time of the arrest, why didn’t he release that info during the internal investigation? Seems it would have been pretty relevant then. This guy is desperate and grasping for straws. He has no respect among the law enforcement community. He is a joke. A bully. A guy who has gotten away with excessive physical force for years. Good riddance, and enjoy the civilian life.
He is NOT a joke…he did the right thing and always does! The only reason any of this happened was the criminal (White) girlfriend had pull in the system!!!!
He is a joke. This has nothing to do with White’s girlfriend. It has to do with Mr. Bruning himself. Bruning got cocky (shocking, I know) and let his ego make a decision. Yes he has arrested a few pedophiles and people in possession of child porn, but so have others. You don’t see those other task force members gloating to the news. The arrests are known, but the officers remain nameless. Defend him all you want, but in the end he still will not have a job. Gee, I wonder what else is in his personnel file that the news is unable to obtain. I hear the DA’s office have had to fight hard to keep his jacket sealed and not brought out during criminal prosecution.
Check out the video of White’s arrest. There is no way that he is intoxicated at all yet Brunning is accusing him of being “heavily intoxicated”
Time to take your blinkers off.
Mark Bruning you are AWESOME!!!!!!!!
He’s kind of a dick, but you kind of have to, to be a cop at least. Realize you have to deal with idiots like the first poster, claiming they were in some way setup by him. In reality they probably were arrested for just cause, but since they are a moron from the town of Guthrie think everyone is out to get them. Need to realize if you commit crime, and get arrested. You only got yourself dummies.
If only the citizens of Guthrie had something better to do than tear others down on social media. You know what makes me sick? Guthrie News Page posted a story of a man in Logan County who was arrested for child pornography around the same time the story of Marks termination made news. Guess how many “likes” the pervert being thrown in jail got.. 4! Guess how many likes the termination of Mark received? 88 and counting. Nobody cares that a potentially harmful man was taken off the streets because they are too busy bashing a man who served GPD for 18 years to protect men like that from your children! Mark has every right to fight for his career because he loves serving this community, the same community that has been so cruel to him over all of this. If you have a problem with the way he does his job then I can only imagine it is because you or your family members have had run ins with the law. There are two sides to every story and he deserves to have his side told. There are a lot of things about this case that the public eye has not seen and corrupt things underlying this case. He is not reaching for straws, he has had these same witnesses from the beginning but the justice system has wronged him. He deserves to fight for the job he loves and have his name cleared. Despite what happens with the arbitration hearing, I am eternally sorry to officer Bruning for the way the citizens of Guthrie are behaving. Slam me all you want on this comment but I will stand by him and will see this thing through.
Good for you Fed up! You stand by him……….in the unemployment line.
Well said Fed Up! Bruning has protected and served this town for almost 2 decades. And I’ve come to the conclusion that all the nasty and derogatory comments that have been posted about this are from people who do not like him or cops because of whatever crimes they committed and these officers did their job and arrested them, or their family members for. I hope he gets his job back! We need more good men like Bruning protecting us from all the criminals in this town!
Mary, he doesn’t protect the people of this town. It’s always been other communities that benefit from his child porn cases. From those that work with him, all his “hard work” is almost non-existent. If he focused on the criminals in Guthrie, you may have a case. There are far better men in the GPD serving Guthrie than this narcissistic a-hole.
Are you kidding? You don’t think he has helped this community? You clearly haven’t done your research. I know of several cases in the town of Guthrie that a pervert has been put behind bars because of the work he does. Last time I checked the city of Guthrie is within the state of Oklahoma and if he is putting people behind bars who are harming children I think the entire state is benefitting from that service regardless of what town he is helping at the time.18 years of service and you think he hasn’t helped Guthrie? You are letting your personal opinion of him cloud your judgment. Your opinion of him as a person should not be a basis for your opinion of him as a police officer. I can promise you that he could not care less about being your best bud or climbing the social ladder, he just cares about protecting people. Yes, even people like you who maybe don’t deserve it. Which is why he deserves to be able to fight for his job and have his side of the story told. Pass judgment all you want but I can promise you that you do not know the story in its entirety and all of the small town politics that are involved.
Mary, you do not have to be a criminal to see people for what they are. For heavens sake take off your rose colored glasses.
Fed up, it’s not my personal opinion of him as a person. It’s solely based upon his activities as a so called police officer. This isn’t small town politics. It’s a bad cop who got caught being a bad cop. He doesn’t deserve the honor of wearing the same badge as other officers of the GPD. One bad apple has given the whole bushel a bad name. I hope he enjoys unarmed security work. I’m sure you’ll be a great character witness.
TDP that stand for totally dumb person , you must be to call people names when you don’t even have any reason to . He just got to big for his own pants and had no respect for common people . I made my mistakes in my life , but I never hurt anyone but myself by them . He’s as crooked as they come . Get over it
I am not taking sides or being personal about this officer but the main reason for this action by the City of Guthrie has happened is due to the fact that one of its citizens had their Constitutional Rights (4th & 14th Amendment) possibly violated. If Mr. White was driving a car and was suspected of being under the influence, he would have been subjected to a field sobriety test (physical, breath or blood) before being taken to jail. Mr. White did not receive this right as a US citizen based on the articles I have read online and seen on the news. No matter what we all deserve these rights as US citizens. Thank goodness for the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Mr. Bruning lost sight of the law. Law is written, not one man with discretionary power. I suggest Mr. Bruning start practicing the phrase “Do you want fries with that?” Reap what you sow.
You people have got to be kidding me. You hear one news story and suddenly you’re all experts on this man. What do you really know besides what you have heard on the news? He didn’t lose his job because he’s “as crooked as they come.” He lost his job because of ONE man’s accusation. The whole thing was a he said, she said incident, but for some reason the word of a single man was taken over the word of police officer who has served 18 years. This doesn’t sound just the slightest bit strange to any of you? The man who’s making these accusations against Mr. Bruning is no angel of the morning. Therefore, I am confused on why his story is being taken as the gospel truth. You people seriously need to pull yourselves together and look at the facts because the truth hasn’t even began to come out.
No this was NOT just one incident!!! Its about time!!!! you don’t get fired for 18 years of loyal and great!! understand!! he had to go!!!!!
The reason why there are so many people in an uproar about this (besides people that love drama) is because when you are a law enforcer, the people expect you to have certain standards. A law enforcer should be trustworthy, noble, fair, law abiding, and have honor. The people need to know that in any given scenario that a police officer is needed, that he or she can be trusted to take care of the situation (and without any personal and/or bias interference). You should not be in that kind of position of power if you don’t hold those qualities. Period. This man may have done good in the time he was a police officer, but none of that means anything if he cannot be trusted in his position. It’s pretty simple. If he truly is innocent in this accusation of breaking the law and violating a mans right, then I’m sorry for him that this is happening. (But there are just too many stories out there that are showing otherwise). At the same time, let this be an example to all men and women in law enforcement to keep their noses clean and be the kind of person that the people they are serving need and deserve!!!
The point was that just because the tv station told you “this is what happened” does not mean that is how it really happened. When he gets to tell his side of the story, which he did not get to do in the press nor was he given a fair hearing because of the politics and personal relationships that the tv hasn’t told you about yet, this whole mess will finally start to make sense. Also, people who break the law tend to dislike cops. It’s no wonder there are so many hateful people on here with as much crime as we have in these parts. Bruning has worked hard for this community for almost 2 decades, and if that means you don’t like him because he arrested your family, friends, or even yourself, then maybe you should be reevaluating your own life.
That’s right. There are always two sides to a story and they all sound the same-it’s everybody’s fault but mine. The only problem is the story has a ring of truth to it, which makes you wonder. Guthrie and Logan County aren’t really high up on the ethics ladder to begin with when it comes to cops and the public. This doesn’t help their case either. Nickel says he gets what he wants because hanging a dirty cop out to dry is always politically incorrect and hard to do.
Keep swiggin’ the kool-aid Mary.
Friends and family breaking the law by….I don’t know…..one of them burning their own house down to get the insurance money? That kind of thing?
The City of Guthrie is working very hard to become a tourist destination. During the past few years, the city has gotten a reputation of being a police state. Law enforcement is very important however, extreme measures will ruin it all. The situations created by the GPD is concerning to say the least. Thanks to the Chief for addressing this matter. Just think about what visitors are saying who witnessed the officers actions that night because it could have been them that got locked up for no obvious reason. Lets be real, it is 2013, and Guthrie needs people to come visit and spend their hard earned money.