Carabiniere not on duty drunk on the street, according to the TAR it is right to punish him

The soldier had opposed the sanction received from the Command (three days of delivery), claiming that no one had seen him. But the TAR confirmed the Carabinieri's decision: "It damaged the image of the body"

BOLOGNA – Can a Carabiniere be ‘noticed’ in a public place “in an obvious state of drunkenness so much as to induce a resident to call the 118 service?”. No he can not. Not even if it happens when he’s not on duty, on a day off. And the TAR confirms. An officer on duty in a Carabinieri station in the Bologna area had approached the administrative judges to request the annulment of a disciplinary sanction decreed by the Regional Command on 11 May 2021: a three-day delivery. The reason? The soldier, in fact, on a day in which he was not on duty (6 February 2021), according to the disciplinary report drawn up by the commander, “was caught in an evident state of intoxication by the 118 service called by a resident citizen, in the presence of other Carabinieri from the Montefiascone Barracks”.

The soldier objected, arguing that his behavior “would not have in any way affected the service or the duties deriving from the status of military personnel; nor would it have created any actual damage or damage to the functioning of image to the administration to which he belongs, having been seen only by military personnel and 118‘s doctors”. He also pointed out to the TAR that his defense briefs would not have been taken into consideration and finally contested the “disproportion” between the fact and the sanction “especially taking into account the lack of disciplinary precedents and the excellent characteristic documentation “. The Carabinieri Legion Command of Emilia Romagna appeared in court contesting all the soldier’s objections “since the contested conduct was reflected in the community and constituted a state of drunkenness outside of duty as a serious disciplinary failure”. And the TAR agreed with the Command.

First the TAR rejected the request for suspension of the disciplinary sanction “given that the behavior of the appellant appears suitable to damage the image of the Carabinieri force to which he belongs and that the graduation of the sanction imposed, taking into account all the factual circumstances, does not appear at first glance manifestly disproportionate”. Then at the beginning of May the ruling on the merits arrived. And here the judges wrote that the reconstruction “disproves” the assumption according to which the episode would not have had any response in the community as the soldier was obliged to protect the image of the administration he belonged to even outside the service rendered“. When considering the defense briefs, the Command evaluated them, justifying that it did not agree with them and, finally, on the disproportionality: “In the present case the graduation of the sanction imposed, taking into account the factual circumstances set out above, does not appear manifestly disproportionate and therefore annullable by the Administrative Court “. Therefore, the appeal is unfounded and rejected; with the officer being sentenced to pay the legal costs to the Regional Command (2,000 euros).