A veteran D.C. police lieutenant is fighting for his career after his bosses, having lost a court battle to fire him, are trying to re-fire him — because the court battle damaged his credibility.
The department fired Tim Haselden in 2005 after police were called to two off-duty confrontations between him and his wife. He was never charged with wrongdoing, but internal D.C. investigators alleged that he was drunk and had attacked his wife.
An administrative hearing judge disagreed, ruling that Haselden had been sober and had tried to defuse the confrontations. The judge ordered Haselden, an 18-year veteran, put back on the job earlier this year.
But after published reports claimed that the police department was reinstating rogue cops on technicalities, the Fenty administration filed papers to fire Haselden again. The city claims that the wife-beating allegations — true or not — damaged Haselden’s credibility and prevented him from doing his job.
“As we discussed, a law enforcement officer’s credibility is critical to successful criminal prosecutions and the ability to testify credibly in criminal cases is an essential function of every police officer,” interim Attorney General Peter Nickles wrote to Chief Cathy Lanier in a May 23 letter.
Haselden told The Examiner on Wednesday that he’s mystified.
“I’m going to be fired for being fired,” the 41-year-old said. “First they tried to ruin my reputation by saying I was a wife-beater. Then they tried to ruin my reputation by saying I have no credibility.”
The re-firing attempt comes despite internal recommendations from police department labor lawyers who said that Haselden should get his job back — posthaste.
There “is no legal basis for appealing this matter and that even if filed, such an appeal would be unsuccessful,” an April 14 memo states, adding that the administrative judge had found Haselden was “very credible” and that “the department had not met its burden of proof in regard to any of the charges.”
The judge in Haselden’s case has given the city until Friday to file a new brief defending its position.
Haselden’s lawyer, James W. Pressler Jr., told The Examiner that the city’s posture is “incomprehensible.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
Haselden said that it has been “very disheartening. The police department is supposed to stand up and do what’s right.
“If they can’t do that for someone in their own ranks, how can they do that for someone they don’t know?”
