Cop fired 40 days before retirement

[Policista]

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Cop fired 40 days before retirement
By Todd Cooper - Published Sunday February 19, 2012
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Roger Anderson was 40 days from retirement — and the pension he would have earned after a 29-year career at the Bellevue Police Department.  Then one day his boss found out that Anderson had spent an hour of sick time taking a friend — former Bellevue Police Officer Chris Parent — through a state firearms certification test.

Police Chief John Stacey called Anderson on the carpet about administering the test for Parent — an officer Stacey had gone to great lengths, and great expense, to keep off the force.

Anderson told his supervisors he made a mistake; that he had spent four hours of sick leave with one of his children, then an hour at a gun range administering Parent's firearms test.

Anderson offered to forfeit that hour of sick time.

Stacey's response: You're fired.

The City of Bellevue listed Anderson's cause of termination as failing to follow chain of command, failing to contact a supervisor before leaving his house, violating rules over sick leave, and failing to uphold the department's integrity policy.

Anderson's attorney, Steve Delaney, attributed the termination to something else: spite.
~Read more at the link~
Contact the writer: 402-444-1275, todd.cooper@owh.com

Link: http://www.omaha.com/article/20120219/NEWS01/705019775/1101#cop-fired-40-days-before-retirement



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[bkoenig]

Sounds like a certain police chief has let his power go to his head.  I hate seeing stuff like this but you hear so much of it - the rank and file officers doing their duty while their bosses play political games.

[Ronvandyn]

Wow, I was unaware of this, and I live in Bellevue.  I know this officer, and he seems to be a bit of an old style guy (carries a 1911 rather than a Glock), but he is a good officer. 

It sounds like its time to ask the State Patrol to step into this mess and see who is violating what.

Ron

[00BUCK]

The simple solution is to run for mayor, win, then fire that A-hole.

[CliffD]

Unbelievable. Any chance this can get reversed?

[Policista]

Unbelievable. Any chance this can get reversed?

After reading through the story several times, I've come to the conclusion that even if only half of it is true, Officer Anderson should be reinstated and permitted to retire as he wants to do.

I understand from a recent article in the Bellevue Leader newspaper that a date has been set to hear the case in front the city's civil service commission. Any reasonable and unbiased person can see that the chief's motivation here is spite. Hopefully, the commission will reverse the termination.

Whether the termination is reversed or not, it is imperative to conduct an internal investigation of the department, and in particular the chief, his command staff and every one of them he has promoted since his appointment. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

If I were a Bellevue City Councilperson, I would be very concerned about certain comments that several readers made which question his fidelity, morals, personal conduct and professional ethics.

The taxpayers and voters deserve to know and have confidence their police department.

[Policista]

I've heard that after the recent city administrator's investigation of Chief Stacey and his subsequent retirement, the city fathers
are now interested in avoiding further litigation with Officer Anderson's case and may be close to negotiating a settlement.

[Ronvandyn]

Good news indeed. 

Ron