Stephen LeBert was caught on camera threatening to “put a hole” in the head of a driver who committed a minor traffic infraction, and now it appears that it’s not the first time the Medford police detective has gotten in trouble for his behavior.
Video hit the internet this week showing the off-duty detective confronting a driver who had gone the wrong way through a driving circle in the town of Medford, the Boston Globe noted. The driver’s dash cam video shows LeBert getting out of his pickup truck and running toward the driver’s car, reaching into his pockets and threatening the man.
“I’ll put a hole right through your f*****g head,” LeBert says in the video. “Pull your car over. I’ll put a hole right in your f*****g head. I’ll put a hole right through your head.”
The driver threw it into reverse and tried to flee LeBert as he advanced, but the driver stopped and pulled over once he saw that Lebert was pulling a badge out of his pocket.
The driver tried to explain that he is from out of town and didn’t realize he was going the wrong way in the driving circle, but LeBert remained enraged.
“You’re lucky I’m a cop because I’d be beating the s*** out of you right now,” LeBert says.
The driver then told LeBert that he had the entire incident on his dash cam , and LeBert responded that he would be seizing it as evidence.
It didn’t take long for the video to go viral, garnering thousands of shares and hundreds of thousands of views in total. The footage prompted the Medford police department to condemn the detective’s actions.
“He’s a 30-year member of the department and works in our detective division,” Medford Police Chief Leo Sacco told Boston.com. “He’s a very effective police officer but last night’s incident that’s on video, at least that portion of the video that I saw, is troubling to say the least.”
It turns out that this isn’t the first time that Stephen LeBert has been in trouble for his temper. In a 2012 video, LeBert was seen harassing a man trying to videotape a police arrest. The detective stood close to the man, licking the camera lens and taunting him The officers appear to know the man filming and make a reference to the man’s brother, a drug addict. When one officer said they have given a lot of breaks to the man’s brother, LeBert chimes in: “What they should do is just take him up on the railroad tracks and tell him to lay down.”
Stephen LeBert has been placed on administrative leave in response to the latest incident.
[Image via YouTube]
