By Gus G. Sentementes , gus.sentementes@baltsun.com|December 23, 2008
A trooper was fired yesterday by the Maryland State Police after he was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man in his marked cruiser at a fast-food drive-through, then leading Baltimore County police on a drunken high-speed chase.
The incident unfolded about 2:30 a.m. Saturday at a Taco Bell restaurant at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue in Towson. Witnesses told county police officers that a trooper in plainclothes activated his siren and began yelling at people in the drive-through to get out of the way, according to police charging documents.
The trooper, identified by police as Bruce Anthony Wrzosek, 22, of the 2500 block of Taylor Ave. in Parkville, assaulted several people in a car and then forced one of them, a 20-year-old man, into his cruiser, according to charging documents.
As Wrzosek was getting into his cruiser, a county officer arrived and asked him to park his vehicle, but Wrzosek sped away, charging documents say.
After a brief high-speed chase during which, according to charging documents, the trooper used his lights and sirens to speed through at least one red light, he stopped the vehicle and was arrested by Baltimore County police after failing a field sobriety test. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.20 percent - more than double the state's legal threshold of 0.08 percent for driving under the influence, according to charging documents.
Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman, said Wrzosek had completed the training academy in December 2007. As a recent hire, Wrzosek was in a mandatory two-year probation period with the Maryland State Police and, during that period, certain job-protection rules afforded by the Law Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights do not apply, according to Shipley.
"Obviously, these allegations are very serious and certainly not a part of Maryland State Police traditions," Shipley said. "We certainly don't condone any aspect of this."
Wrzosek had been issued a take-home state police cruiser as part of his assignment working road patrol while based at the Golden Ring barracks in Baltimore County. Shipley said that Wrzosek's last workday before his arrest was Wednesday.
The trooper had been disciplined internally for an incident that occurred in April outside a bar in Canton in Southeast Baltimore, according to Shipley and electronic court documents. Baltimore police officers spotted him and another man drinking on the sidewalk and tried to get them to leave and take a cab, but the trooper is alleged to have begun cursing at the officers, charging documents in that case show.
