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A Seattle police officer fired last year for allegedly being dishonest will get his job back. Officer Eric Werner, 31, will also get back pay after the city's Public Civil Service Commission ruled that termination was improper. Instead Werner will be assessed a 30-day suspension. Werner insisted that he did not remember punching an agitated man when he was initially questioned in 2007 by Seattle police during an investigation into the man's use of force complaint. Werner, during testimony last year before the Seattle Police Commission, said he only later remembered striking the man.
He decided to be up front about his memory later while applying for a job with the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office. That hiring process included polygraph examinations. The Sheriff's Office did not hire Werner. But they did call the Seattle Police Department and informed them of the Werner's statements during the interview.
After an internal investigation he was fired by Seattle interim Police Chief John Diaz for violating the department's honesty policy. When Werner appealed his firing, the case was viewed as a key test of the Seattle Police Department's honesty policy. The policy presumes officers will be fired for dishonesty in their official duties and was a cornerstone of new rules adopted in 2008 to address community concerns about police accountability. The policy is also now in effect in Boston, Massachusetts.
Though the city and the Police Department could appeal the commission's ruling that the termination should be reduced to a 30-day suspension, but labor law experts say the chances of that happening are slim. "The City Attorney's Office is analyzing the decision, and considering whether to appeal.
No decision has been made yet," a spokeswoman for City Attorney Peter Holmes wrote in an e-mail sent to reporters with the Seattle Times. But despite the favorable ruling from the commission, Officer Werner's name has now been added to the so-called "Brady list." That's a list of cops kept by the King County prosecutor's office of potential witnesses whose honesty has been called into question, according to spokesman Dan Donohoe.
Most of the 52 names on the list are law-enforcement officers, though the list also includes two former State Patrol crime-lab employees and a former employee of the King County Medical Examiner's Office. The prosecutor's office will be required to notify defense attorneys whenever Werner is called to testify against a criminal defendant, Donohoe said. Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the Seattle Police Officers' Guild, was pleased with the Public Civil Service Commission's ruling.
He said the department didn't follow its own rules in applying the dishonesty policy. "Dishonesty is a very serious charge," he said, and to fire an officer, the department has to prove there is "clear and convincing evidence" that an officer lied about "a material fact"- something O'Neill insists didn't apply in Werner's case.
Two of the three commissioners agreed saying "that termination was the inappropriate form of punishment given the facts and circumstances of the case," according to the ruling. Instead, they ruled a 30-day suspension, the most severe punishment short of termination was more appropriate. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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