A Denver Civil Service Commission hearing officer has dramatically reduced the penalty for two police officers who were suspended without pay for recording a supervisor without his knowledge.
And in a second decision today, a three-member commission hearing panel upheld an order barring a different officer from serving on the police department because a domestic violence conviction stripped him of the right to carry a gun.
In the taping case, former Safety Manager Charles Garcia suspended Sgt. Brian O’Neill 30 days without pay for surreptitiously filming Cmdr. John Burbach, the head of police department’s internal affairs bureau.
O’Neill was trying to expose what he believed was bias against his officers.
Lt. Daren Ciempa lost 40 days of pay for giving O’Neill the go-ahead to make the video recording.
Hearing officer Rhonda Rhodes found that the two “exercised poor judgement,” but that “no rule, regulation or provision of Denver Police Department Operations Manual explicitly prohibits the investigative conduct” for which they were disciplined.
She also found that neither “abused any person or other officer nor misused their authority,” according to her 12-page conclusion.
Rhodes overturned two of the rule violations Garcia had imposed against O’Neill and reduced his suspension for what is known as “conduct prejudicial” to two days.
In Ciempa’s case, she reduced the suspension for conduct prejudicial to four days and overturned two other violations.
She ordered the city to restore all the pay they lost with either compensatory or back pay.
City Attorney Doug Friednash said the city will appeal Rhodes’ decision.
Nick Rogers, president of Denver’s police union, applauded the decision, calling Garcia’s orders unfair.
In the second case, Deputy Safety Manager Ashley Kilroy ordered Officer Sean Pierson “disqualified” from the department after he was convicted of harassment, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment in Adams County Court. The conviction barred him from carrying a gun.
Pierson, who couldn’t be reached for comment today, was accused of pushing his then-girlfriend and punching her in the back in 2010.
In addition, Kilroy said Pierson also could have been disqualified after June 4, 2010, the day a judge issued a protection order against the officer that barred him from carrying a firearm.
The fact a judge later concluded that Pierson should get a new trial because of improper jury instructions does not matter, the panel ruled.
“It is of no importance that in the future he may be successful in his appeals. He is still under a mandatory restraining order that prevents him from carrying a firearm and from performing the essential functions of a police officer,” the panel said in its order.
