Denver’s Civil Service Commission has temporarily reinstated two fired police officers until it can hear an appeal by the city of an earlier ruling overturning their firing and declined to give two others their jobs back while the city’s appeal in their case is pending.
Kevin Divine and Ricky Nixon, who were fired by former Denver Manager of Safety Charles Garcia after a rough arrest outside The Denver Diner in 2009, will get their jobs back, at least temporarily. A commission hearing panel overturned their firing by Garcia and the City appealed the panel’s decision, and asked the commission to stay reinstatement until commissioners could rule on the case.
The Commission will still hear the City’s appeal and could decide that the hearing panel was wrong in deciding Nixon and Divine shouldn’t have been fired.
The commission allowed Nixon and Divine’s reinstatement because the city failed to file its request for a stay in a timely manner, according to the order issued today. “They were late by four days in filing the request for a stay. The city openly admitted they failed to meet the deadline,” said Civil Service Commission Executive Director Earl Peterson.
In a separate case, the commission declined to reinstate two police officers fired for lying about a stolen car chase. Former Safety Manager Mary Malatesta fired David Torrez and Jose Palomares last March. A hearing panel that contracts to hear officers termination appeals overturned the dismissal, saying their misleading statements didn’t meet the legal bar needed to end their careers.
The city appealed the panel’s decision to the commission and asked for a stay of reinstatement for Torrez and Palomares until the commission decides whether their firing should stand. “The commission finds that irreparable harm, injury, or loss is likely to result if the request for partial stay is not granted,” according to the commission order.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
