Ex-cop appeals to circuit court to get job back

Lawyer argues client didn’t violate NLR agency’s policy

A North Little Rock police officer who was fired for punching a man in the chest filed a complaint last month appealing the decision and seeking back pay in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Angel Rosado was fired in September after investigators determined that he violated the department’s use-of-force and reporting policies after an aggressive encounter with an unarmed man who Rosado apparently believed to be homeless.

His Jan. 29 complaint in circuit court names the Police Department and the city as respondents. Rosado’s attorney, William O. James, said Rosado wants his job back and his full retirement benefits restored. It’s as much his “personal pride, too,” James said in an interview.

The incident that led to Rosado’s firing began when he was sent to an address near North Little Rock High School late on July 2, 2019, after a call indicated a man digging through a dumpster.

Dashboard camera footage obtained by KLRT-TV shows Rosado speaking to the man and then shoving the man onto the hood of his parked squad car and frisking him. Later, after two other officers arrive as backups, Rosado is seen suddenly striking the man in the chest as the other officers step away and prepare to leave.

According to KLRT, documents produced during the investigation say Rosado drove the man to the Broadway bridge, where he told him to “go back to Little Rock,” and ultimately never reported the incident.

In an interview with investigators, when asked why he hit the man, Rosado expressed frustration with homeless individuals arriving in North Little Rock from the River Market area in Little Rock.

Rosado was fired in September after nearly 20 years with the Police Department. Rosado appealed his termination, which the North Little Rock Civil Service Commission upheld on Jan. 17 .

Rosado’s complaint seeks reinstatement to his job, full back pay, and attorney’s fees and costs.

On Monday, North Little Rock City Attorney Amy Fields declined via phone to comment about the complaint, citing the ongoing litigation. She said outside counsel is representing the city in the matter.

James acknowledged in a phone interview Tuesday that his client’s actions looked bad.

“Certainly it’s not commendable. He shouldn’t get an award for what he did, but what he did do did not warrant firing him,” James said.

His client will receive some retirement benefits, but the firing is going to cost him money, James said, although he could not say exactly how much.

As a Little Rock criminal defense attorney, James said he believes that Rosado’s actions didn’t violate the department’s use-of-force and reporting policies.

Rosado gave candid statements to his superiors when he was called in to describe what happened and was never told to complete a use-offorce report, James said, arguing that the circumstances of the punch didn’t require Rosado to report the incident. “There was no injury. It was open hand,” James said.

His firing was “just a function of, it looks bad on tape,” James said. “It’s maybe the uglier side of police work in some respects, but it doesn’t qualify as something that he should be fired for after the service that he’s provided to the city and never had an allegation like this before.”