Newsletter
FEDERAL ARBITRATOR RULES THAT CITY OF
FORT LAUDERDALE POLICE
OFFICER DID NOT MAKE RACIAL
REMARK
An Arbitrator appointed through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service has exonerated Fort Lauderdale Police Officer Robert Hoffman
ruling that he did not utter a racial remark upon exiting from a
Fort Lauderdale courtroom in
April 2003.
Arbitrator Don Hays, after conducting a
two day hearing in January 2007 in which the City and Officer Hoffman
through his representative the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police,
Lodge 31 presented evidence and testimony under oath, issued a final and
binding decision in which he concluded that the “preponderant and credible
evidence .... and the only credible evidence” demonstrated that Officer
Hoffman did not utter any racial remark after a juvenile court proceeding
before Judge Michael Orlando. He further stated that the City’s discipline
of Officer Hoffman for the incident
“... was based on
insufficient allegations and/or no real proof.”
The decision of the Federal Arbitrator
ends this four year old case in which the City ignored the findings and
recommendations of the Police Civilian Review Board, its Internal Affairs
Office and the Police Department Upper Level Command Staff all of whom
concluded that Officer Hoffman made no racial remark. The City Manager,
George Gretsas, however ignored these recommendations and improperly
relied upon a single Office of Professional Standards Report written by
civilian Robert Bates– a Report which Arbitrator Hays found contained
numerous deficiencies in the evidence.
FOP President, Jack Lokeinsky, stated
that this decision exonerating Officer Hoffman is further proof that the
civilian officials appointed by City Manager Gretsas are not qualified and
are among the reasons morale is low and that experienced police officers
are leaving
Fort Lauderdale to work for
other Police Departments.
He further stated that the City owes both
Officer Hoffman and the residents of the City an apology for its
incompetence in handling this case in which it provided the media with the
erroneous and incomplete Office of Professional Standards Report before
Officer Hoffman had the opportunity to present his evidence and point out
the deficiencies in that Report as it was the City’s orchestrated and
premature media coverage which unnecessarily incited some residents of
the City into falsely believing that Officer Hoffman had uttered a racial
remark.
Based on the conduct of City officials in
this case, the FOP intends to file a complaint with Office and
Professional Standards and the Police Department’s Office of Internal
Affairs requesting that a neutral Third party investigate any wrongdoing
by City officials in this case, including the author of the inaccurate
Report of the Office of Professional Standards, Robert Bates, and David
Hebert, the former Public Information Officer and present Civilian
Director of Public Safety Department, whose Public Information Office was
responsible for prematurely presenting the media with inaccurate
information regarding the incident. Due to their present positions, a
Third party investigation of this incident is required to avoid a conflict
of interest.
