By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

NEWPORT - A Newport police sergeant seen on a police-cruiser video last month talking his way out of an arrest for suspicion of driving drunk will be disciplined by his department.

The sergeant, Mark Crank, will be suspended for three to five days without pay, Newport Police Chief Tom Fromme said. He declined to be more specific about the reprimand.

The Fort Thomas officer who stopped Crank for allegedly swerving, Adam Brown, received counseling from his chief, but Fort Thomas Police spokesman Lt. Mark Dill declined to be more specific.

Fort Thomas Police Chief Steve Schmidt refused comment.

Fromme last week said he decided to take action against Crank before the police video of the Aug. 10 traffic stop was released to the public Aug. 26. The 50-minute video recorded by a camera mounted in a Fort Thomas cruiser shows Crank trying to dodge being charged and Brown agonizing about how to treat a fellow officer.

"You have put me in a horrible situation tonight," Brown told Crank as traffic whizzed by at the Interstate 471 interchange with Interstate 275.

"The bottom line is you are DUI. You know it, and I know it. I am obligated by state law and I am obligated by ethics to treat you just like I do anybody else.

"The problem is that if I (arrest you), you and I both know the political storm in a hornet's nest that I'm going to stir up."

Another time on the video, Crank said he had a been at Huddle's Cafe, a Newport bar, with "the chief."

Fromme confirms he saw Crank before the stop.

"I saw him that night," he said. "That's all I can say."

Crank, off duty and in a civilian car, was eventually picked up on the side of the road by someone described on the videotape as a supervisor at Newport police but not identified by name. Another person arrived to take away the car Crank was driving.

Crank's personnel file is filled with positive reviews.

Fromme wrote one of many commendations. .

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com