Case: Labor Arbitration/Discharge (Arb.)

Arbitrator M. W. Gear ruled that a city properly discharged a police officer who knowingly returned stolen tools to a city agency that had comparable items stolen, even though an agency employee informed him they weren’t the agency’s tools, since the officer was dishonest about this, and he compounded the problem by filing a false police report. The officer’s credibility as a witness in court was severely damaged, rendering him no longer qualified to be a patrol officer, there is no alternative sanction available for such a Brady/Giglio credibility problem, and the union failed to prove “disparate treatment.” The arbitrator ...