LAWRENCE - Police Sgt. Ryan Shafer was fired yesterday by Mayor Michael Sullivan, one month after fellow officers arrested him on charges of drunken driving and leading police on a high-speed chase.

Sullivan, in a July 18 letter to Shafer, cited that the arrest, as well as a February restraining order and a 2002 assault arrest was "conduct that calls into question your ability to comport yourself in accordance with the laws you have been sworn to enforce."

A relative of Shafer accepted the letter at his home around noon yesterday, police Chief John Romero said.

"The mayor and Chief Romero set very high standards of conduct for the members of the Police Department," Michael Sweeney, the city's planning director and an aide to Sullivan said. "There are just types of conduct that can't be tolerated."

Shafer, 31, an eight-year Lawrence police veteran, can appeal the firing and a hearing for him to do that has been scheduled for Aug. 16. A woman who answered the phone at Shafer's home said he was out of town and would not want to comment.

Lawrence police arrested Shafer around 3 a.m. June 21 after Methuen police tried to pull him over for erratic driving. Shafer led Methuen police onto Interstate 495 south, pushing the truck he was driving to about 90 mph, police said.

Methuen officers abandoned the chase and called Lawrence police to send them to Shafer's Lawrence home.

When officers arrived at the house, they found Shafer's truck abandoned. But moments later, a car came down the street with Shafer behind the wheel. He was pulled over and charged with drunken driving, as well as other charges stemming from the chase.

That arrest saw Shafer serve a stint at a state detox center before returning to Lawrence, where he was released on $500 bail.

Shafer had been on administrative leave from the Police Department since February, when a Lawrence woman obtained a restraining order against him. In asking for the order, the woman said that on Feb. 25 Shafer slashed the tires on his own Mercedes-Benz while screaming profanities at her. Shafer also stood outside the woman's boyfriend's house, screaming from 4 to 6:30 a.m., the woman wrote in an affidavit.

The woman also accused Shafer of looking at her phone bill history and recent text messages and driving by her house and the homes of her friends.

Shafer was charged with assault and battery in 2002. Police said he assaulted his girlfriend during an argument with his sister. The woman later dropped the charges, but Shafer served a two-day suspension from the Police Department.

Romero defended Sullivan's decision to fire Shafer.

"It's in the best interest of the department that his employment be terminated," he said. "His actions impugned the reputation of the department. Police officers are held to a higher standard, as they should be."