Troopers Disciplined For Prank Involving Klan-Like Costume

[The Straight Story]

SANDUSKY, Ohio -- Authorities say a highway patrolman dressed in a handmade Ku Klux Klan-like outfit while on duty was suspended without pay. Another trooper who forwarded a cell phone photo of the trooper in the costume has been demoted.

Twelve-year Ohio Highway Patrol veteran Craig Franklin is pictured in the Jan. 20 photo with a white cone on his head, white paper mask with eye holes and a white cloth covering his shoulders.

Franklin and Trooper Eric Wlodarsky told an investigator that the picture was taken as a joke while both were on duty at the patrol's Sandusky post and was modeled on a television skit by comedian Dave Chappelle.

http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-04-13-0004.html