Cops on leave in probe into flushed fetus

MESA, Ariz., June 4 (UPI) -- Five suburban Phoenix police officers are on paid leave until authorities finish two investigations, including whether an officer flushed a fetus down a toilet.

Mesa, Ariz., Police Chief George Gascon said one investigation was to determine whether an officer used excessive force.

In the case, four officers responding to a call of a possible miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion, at a Mesa motel Monday discovered a woman who had miscarried a 4-inch fetus estimated to be 12 to 14 weeks old, Gascon said at a news conference.

Although Mesa fire and police were present in the motel room, Lt. Lynn Young told the officers and fire personnel not to take the fetus, but to flush it down the toilet, Gascon said.

"What occurred here, I've never seen in my career," Mesa's East Valley Tribune reported Gascon as saying.

Young and officers Kristen Johnson, Robert Buquo and Glenn Pearson were placed on administrative leave.

In the alleged excessive force incident, Officer Nicholas Webster was seen on an arrest video May 16 shoving a handcuffed man's head into the rear windshield of a police cruiser before repeatedly pushing his face and shoulder into a chain-link fence inside an inmate booking area, Gascon said.

Gascon said police would forward both cases to the county Attorney's Office to see if prosecutors would recommend any charges.