Burbank settles claim by fired police officer
The detective had sought reinstatement, citing an arbitrator’s ruling in his favor.
Burbank has reached a $451,000 settlement with a former police detective who challenged in court a decision by the city manager to not reinstate him, citing an independent arbitrator’s recommendation that he should get his job back, officials said.
Former Burbank Police Det. Mike Reyes was fired in June 2010 after city officials accused him of failing to report a use-of-force complaint reported to him by a suspect tied to a robbery at Porto’s Bakery in 2007, and lying about it a year and a half later to cover up the alleged misconduct.
In a petition for a writ of mandate filed last year, Reyes argued he should be reinstated as a police officer because the arbitrator had ruled that he was not terminated for just cause.
The petition was dismissed last week after the Burbank City Council’s approval of the settlement agreement, said Burbank City Atty. Amy Albano.
The city agreed to pay Reyes $451,000 and will allow him to resign, she added.
“I think that this was the right decision for everyone,” Albano said.
The case goes back eight years, when Reyes interviewed a suspect thought to be tied to the 2007 Porto’s robbery who reportedly complained to Reyes of excessive force by other officers. The man turned out not to be connected to the robbery, as he was confused with someone with a similar name.
In April 2009, another detective came forward with information suggesting that officers used excessive force during the robbery investigation and then attempted to cover up the misconduct during initial internal affairs investigations.
When Reyes was interviewed 18 months after the incident, he couldn’t recall details of the case, but testified that if he had been alerted to a use-of-force complaint, he would have told his sergeant, arbitration records show.
Arbitrator Michael Prihar said in his September 2013 decision that Reyes’ testimony was genuine and credible. He noted that Reyes had not been interviewed during the initial investigation, and his failure to recall the events were consistent with the passage of time. The city manager, however, upheld his termination in December of 2013, saying in his opinion that Reyes was untruthful.
Prihar “basically said he didn’t do anything, he didn’t do anything wrong,” Reyes’ attorney, Paul DePasquale, said Wednesday. “In a situation like this, where an arbitrator sat through the hearing, it really doesn’t make much sense to second-guess the credibility determinations of that arbitrator.”