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An Omaha police sergeant has been reassigned as investigators look into an incident that resulted in his being charged with reckless driving and aggravated assault.
Sgt. Lance Harrison, 42, pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges Wednesday in Sarpy County Court. He is accused of pulling a gun on a motorist who reported him for reckless driving. The incident occurred May 24 in Bellevue.
Capt. Herb Evers of the Bellevue Police Department said officers were called to the southbound lanes of U.S. Highway 75 at Capehart Road to investigate.
Evers said a man called 911 to report a reckless driver, then stayed on the line as he followed the driver.
The 911 caller said the other driver then stopped his vehicle.
The driver walked back to the 911 caller's vehicle, pulled a gun, identified himself as a police officer and demanded to know why the caller was following him.
Evers said the police officer then left. Based on a license plate number, Bellevue police went to Harrison's Bellevue home to continue the investigation.
Evers said Harrison was uncooperative and refused to come outside.
Authorities soon learned that Harrison was an Omaha police sergeant after another officer remembered him from a stint at a previous law enforcement agency.
The 911 caller filed a complaint with the Omaha Police Department. Bellevue authorities forwarded an investigative file on the incident to the Sarpy County Attorney's Office and to Omaha's police internal affairs unit.
Sarpy County authorities eventually filed the charges against Harrison, who has been an Omaha police officer since 2000.
As an Omaha police patrol officer, he and Officer Dawn Pollreis were cleared of wrongdoing in a 2007 incident in which Pollreis used a Taser on a mildly retarded man in a series of events that ended with the man's death.
A federal judge earlier this year threw out a lawsuit filed by the man's family against the officers and the City of Omaha.
Contact the writer:
444-3106, andrew.nelson@owh.com
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