In two recent disciplinary arbitrations, Senior Associate Paul Coble prevailed in upholding the termination of a police officer and a civilian evidence technician.
In the case of the officer, he was found to have lied to internal affairs about why he called off sick for court; he claimed to have been ill but the evidence showed he instead left for a preplanned trip to Las Vegas. The record showed that had the officer been truthful the discipline imposed would have been very minor. Instead he chose to lie and to blame others.
The evidence technician was found to have been grossly and knowingly negligent in the performance of her duties taking photographs of an important crime scene and, in a separate instance, destroying blood evidence from a burglary. The arbitrator rejected the defense theory that it was the fault of the police department for not properly training the technician; the record showed substantial training as well as evidence of prior excellent performance of the same duties failed to have been performed in these two investigations.