By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
A Yukon police officer was accused of assaulting his girlfriend outside Grady’s Pub by the couple’s Uber driver Jan. 5.
Yukon policeman Cooper Finch and his girlfriend had reportedly been drinking in Oklahoma City where an Uber driver picked them up and drove them and a male friend to Grady’s Pub in Yukon sometime after 1 a.m.
A police report shows Yukon police responded to the pub, 444 W. Main, at 1:34 a.m. after the driver called police to report a disturbance.
The driver said the man who was with the couple accused Finch of assaulting the female passenger. The two men were arguing and both began fighting when they got out his car, the report states.
By the time Yukon police responded, “the man had left the scene,” Police Chief John Corn said. “The girlfriend said she had not been assaulted, that no one had been assaulted.”
Finch was reported to be “very intoxicated,” the officer’s report states and the woman said she had been drinking but “appeared in a much more sober state.”
Corn said the officer looked for any evidence of injuries and finding none, allowed Finch and his girlfriend to leave the scene after they obtained a ride through another taxi service, Lyft.
“Based on the situation, the officer got there on a disturbance call and the disturbance was concluded,” Corn said. “The officers used their discretion and allowed them to get a ride. They were on private property at the bar and yes either or all of them could have been arrested for public intox, but the officers on the scene used their discretion and allowed them to do that. This isn’t the first time that’s been done for someone. We exercise our discretion and sometimes allow people to avoid going to jail if they can safely get themselves home.”
Corn declined to say if the officer has been disciplined for the reported public intoxication.
Grady’s Pub manager Nathan Cross said none of his workers that evening heard or witnessed any disturbance and that surveillance cameras are inside the pub only.
