Disgraced cop goes courting

Jeff Chance got a lucky break from a fuzzy-headed arbiter and got more than he deserved: his job back. Now Chance is trying to grab another $75,000 from the public trough.
Some people have no shame.
Chance, you'll recall, is the brother of former Sheriff Phil Chance, who is serving a federal prison sentence for racketeering. Under his brother's guiding hand, Jeff made a single leap from corporal to captain and got a $12,000 pay raise back in 1997.
His days as a captain ended about the time he was accused of exaggerating the success of his drug raids and of tampering with evidence and records
Eventually he pleaded guilty to falsification, and that should have been the end of his days in law enforcement. The special prosecutor, David F. Chuparkoff, said of Chance and a co-defendant on the day they pleaded: "They're criminals and I hope criminals are not allowed to continue as police office. They shouldn't wear a badge and represent Mahoning County."
What happened: But Chance's luck began to change. While he talked tough, Chuparkoff neglected to demand resignation from the department as a condition of the plea agreement. Then a visiting judge gave Chance a slap-on-the-wrist sentence of 200 hours community service rather than a year behind bars. Finally, the aforementioned arbiter found "no evidence on the record that [Chance] was dishonest."
Now, Chance has filed suit in U.S. district court against the sheriff's department, Sheriff Randall Wellington and Maj. Michael Budd. asking $75,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages. Chance says he was defamed and his civil rights were violated by Wellington and Budd.
Chance may even get a federal court to agree with him. Stranger things have happened. Remember the high school principal who successfully claimed that smoking pot afforded him job protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act?
But no matter what happens in court, Jeff Chance will always be the guy who masqueraded as a crime buster with a pile of flour in front of him that he said was cocaine. He shouldn't be shining the shoes of a police officer much less walking in them.