Albuquerque attorney Timothy White on Monday filed a request for an injunction asking the court to stop the proposed firing of Sgt. Troy Baker and Officer Steve Cosban and scrap the proposed discipline of three other officers for their involvement in the March 2010 arrest of a man in the parking lot of the Walmart store on Cerrillos Road.
White charged that the discipline was a payback for past dissent by the officers.
Judge Barbara Vigil asked White and City Attorney Geno Zamora to agree on a date for a hearing on the matter in the near future.
The five officers were informed of the proposed discipline in May. But the city's contract with the police officers union requires City Manager Robert Romero to meet with them before the punishment can be finalized. That meeting is scheduled for today. Romero told a reporter Monday afternoon that he was not aware of the court filing.
Rael has maintained he cannot comment on the situation because it is a personnel matter.
A dashboard camera video of the 2010 arrest shows 39-year-old Michael Schaefer being forced to the ground and arrested by several officers after telling one of them he wanted to fight. Schaefer, who suffered a cut to his ear, has threatened to sue the city, alleging police brutality.
In his request for injunctive relief, White argued the interim chief's proposed discipline contradicts the results of an internal affairs investigation conducted by Lt. Dale Lettenberger and now-Capt. George Ortiz. They consulted a use-of-force expert and determined none of the officers was out of line in the handling of the arrest.
White said his clients have been refused copies of Lettenberger's report because the city says it does not exist.
But other evidence suggests it does. According to White, the expert says he reviewed a report. And in May, Rael said he reviewed the internal investigation and told The New Mexican he "could not concur with the findings" in the report.
"On the basis of seven whole days experience as interim Chief, Defendant Rael refused to concur with the internal affairs investigation without stating any basis for his disagreement," White wrote in the court document. "(The officers) were told by another deputy chief in the department that the city attorney told Rael that the officers had used excessive force in making the arrest."
Deputy Police Chief Gillian Alessio, who according to White had never conducted an internal affairs investigation, was asked in April to reinvestigate the arrest and find a reason to discipline the officers.
The officers involved also claim to have tape recordings of Alessio promising to interview each of them before her report was finalized, but she never did and later denied agreeing to interview them.
The officers' injunction request states Alessio's "result-oriented investigation" was a "sham" aimed at getting the results Rael wanted instead of what the internal affairs officers determined.
The Santa Fe Police Officers Association in November passed a "no confidence" vote in Romero and Assistant City Attorney Mark Allen. The vote, in large part, was based on allegations that the two control the daily operations of the police department and have pressured officers in the past "to falsify reports and change their testimony in cases being settled by the City Attorney's Office."
The city in October denied The New Mexican's request under the Inspection of Public Records Act for a memo sent from a former internal affairs investigator to Mayor David Coss regarding specific allegations of Allen's interference in internal affairs cases. The Foundation for Open Government reviewed the request and denial and determined the city was not justified in denying access to the records requested.
White wrote in Monday's request for the injunction that today's meeting with Romero will be for show, to comply with the police union contract, and that Rael's proposed discipline "will be rubber-stamped."
"Rael, Romero and Mark Allen are known to be friends and golf buddies," White wrote.
Rael, who worked in the city's Human Resources Department before being named interim chief, said in March that while he is friends with Romero and Allen, that would not play a role in how he runs the department because he is his "own man."
Rael, Alessio, Romero and the city of Santa Fe are named as the defendants in the matter.
White stated that each of the five officers already has suffered damage to his reputation and will suffer more if the proposed discipline, especially the firings, is carried out.
Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.
Source: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Attorney--Chief-fired-officers-over-past-dissent
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