Pittsburgh police officer fired in Jim Rogers' death cannot get job back, judge rules
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A Pittsburgh police officer involved in the tasing death of Jim Rogers cannot get his job back, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Alan Hertzberg issued a ruling vacating an arbitration decision reinstating Keith Edmonds as an officer with the city, a statement from Mayor Ed Gainey said on Wednesday.
Gainey's statement said that Hertzberg's ruling found that the "neutral arbitrator and FOP arbitrators deprived the City of its due process rights by dishonestly finding that police officer Keith Edmonds did not violate a City policy, rule or regulation, when he admitted that he did and when the evidence of violations was overwhelming."
Neutral arbitrator Marc Winters ruled in March that Edmonds should be reinstated to the force. He found that Edmonds did not violate city policy but did not exactly follow policy either. In April, the city filed an appeal, and Hertzberg's ruling on Wednesday overturned that.
"Policy means something," Citizen Police Review Board Executive Director Elizabeth Pittinger said on Wednesday. "And so if you violate that policy, you are not conducting yourself as expected, as an employee."
"The FOP has expressed a concern that medical evidence does not say that Officer Edmonds killed this man," she added.
The police union president called Wednesday's ruling a "blatant deviation from legal precedent. To insinuate that the panel was dishonest in any manner is professionally unethical and clearly without evidence."
Rogers, a homeless man, died in 2021 after being tased by officers with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. Officers tased him after he was accused of stealing a bike in the city's Bloomfield neighborhood.
While in custody, Rogers told officers he could not breathe and needed to be taken to the hospital, but officers delayed leaving the scene in Bloomfield until EMS arrived to treat their injuries. Rogers was taken to UPMC Mercy by officers, but he was unconscious when he arrived and later died. West Penn Hospital was two blocks away from the scene in Bloomfield.
The city settled with Rogers' family for $8 million.
"We're thankful the court decision will allow the City of Pittsburgh to hold City employees responsible for their actions and ensure that every resident is treated with dignity and respect," Gainey said in Wednesday's statement.
"This decision today represents an essential step forward, and must be recognized as only the beginning of a broader movement for justice," a statement from the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch said, in part.
Earlier this year, bodycam video from officers showed the moments leading up to Rogers' death.
"They are horrendous to see," Pittinger said. "The inhumanity that we observe in those videos is just unconscionable."
Pittinger said the review board has been working on a report about the entire incident. The board will present it to the full board next month and could choose to release it to the public