When we first heard that who’d punched out an inmate last year, we felt compelled to go back and watch the video again. Sure enough, the recording looked the same as it had the first, second and 10th time we had seen it: a brutal assault by a deputy on an inmate who posed no discernible threat.
And yet in its order last week, the board said Deputy Thomas Ford gets to remain on the force with back pay for all but 40 days.
The board accepted the deputy’s claim that he felt threatened by the smaller man who allegedly was insulting him from his chair on the other side of the room. So Ford strode over and, as the man stood up with his arms still at his side, leveled him with a smashing blow.
If Ford had actually felt threatened, why didn’t he ask for the assistance of another nearby deputy? Obviously because he was going to show the inmate who was boss and punish him for whatever he’d said. But the board explicitly rejected the conclusion that the deputy was punishing the inmate. Its members refused to believe the evidence they saw with their own eyes.
By the way, Ford also filed an inaccurate incident report, but that is deemed a trivial matter by the board as well. An officer of the law who is not truthful? What’s the big deal?
The board professes to be deeply impressed by the fact that the early administrative review of the incident assumed Ford not only had punched the inmate but also kicked him and dragged him, when the video is not conclusive regarding the latter two claims. So what? One devastating punch is quite enough.
More substantively, the board argues that discipline for deputies who are guilty of using excessive force has not been consistent and cites several incidents where deputies received lighter punishment. Two of the cases were indeed arguably as egregious as Ford’s.
But if the board is saying that inadequate disciplinary decisions in the past shackle the agency to inadequate disciplinary decisions going forward, then it is simply wrong.
The Career Service Authority Board has sent a terrible signal regarding future discipline for deputies who use excessive force or mislead their superiors about it — and not only by reinstating Ford. Last month it reinstated Deputy William Lewis despite the fact that Lewis misled the agency about the same incident.
New Denver Sheriff Patrick Firman’s job just got harder.
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