Hearing officer overturns discipline of Denver cops in separate alleged excessive force cases

[damnedifIknow]

DENVER - For the second time in less than a month, an appeal hearing officer has overturned the discipline of a Denver police officer captured on video using what the city alleged was excessive force.

On Tuesday, the appeal hearing officer, Terry Tomsick, overturned the city's 30-day suspension of Officer Choice Johnson, who was disciplined by the deputy manager of safety for shoving down a man, who was standing with his hands in his pockets, during a dispute outside a LoDo bar in July 2014.

*On July 30, Tomsick overturned the city's firing of Officer James Medina, who was shown on surveillance video placing his knee on the neck of an arrested woman, who then collapsed in a holding cell.

Siddhartha Rathod, the attorney for Schreiber, accused Tomsick of being biased in favor of police.

"This is the same hearing officer who ruled that Officer Medina's conduct was within conformity of the Denver Police Department (rules). So it's just a bias," said Rathod, whose law firm has won several high-profile excessive-force cases against Denver law enforcement agencies.

He said the Denver Civil Service Commission "is a corrupt system. It's a system that's designed to keep… bad police officers."

On the rare occasion that Denver does discipline a police officer, or terminate a police officer, the Civil Service Commission pretty much every single time, reverses that decision," Rathod said."

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/hearing-officer-overturns-discipline-of-denver-cops-in-separate-alleged-excessive-force-cases

[malokvale77]

1. Here in Dallas...

our Police Chief keeps firing bad officers, but the appeals judges keep sending them back into uniform.

The whole system is indeed corrupt. There is no justice.

[Taitertots]

2. The bushel has been spoiled by the bad apples

DU,

Ask your friends (the "good cops&quot what they are going to do about this crimal conspiracy in Ameican law enforcement. If/when they say nothing, then you know they were bad cops all along.

[Lee-Lee]

3. I worked the job with no Union, no civil service protections

and even less protection than any other worker because NC law says any deputy sheriff works as an "at will" employee who serves "at the pleasure of" the sheriff.

That uncertainty sucked. I ended up leaving the department when a new sheriff was elected who decided as a small statured female I wasn't able to do the job I did the 3 years prior and told me I could be a school resource officer or nothing.

Many LE unions have grown powerful, yes. But like any time a union deals with employer disputes it's usually the employer failing to follow the right procedures and respect a contract that leads to the employee and union winning- these cities need to dot their I's and cross their T's just like any other employer with a union workforce does.

Cops don't deserve and special protections in their employment more than any other worker does. But they also don't deserve one bit less of their rights as workers either, and any calls to treat them as second-rate workers is wrong and shows a lack of real support for labor if you think society should en able to say some workers deserve less protection and fewer rights than others.