An arbitrator upheld the St. Paul police chief’s decision to fire an officer, saying he and his colleagues laughed when a man assaulted patrons of a bar and mocked people who were injured.

Chief Todd Axtell terminated five officers in June after an internal affairs investigation found they failed to intervene when they saw the assaults outside Checker Board Pizza in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood in June 2018.

Tou Cha, who resigned as a St. Paul officer in 2005, pleaded guilty last summer to hitting his wife’s nephew in the head with a club outside the bar and restauarant at Arcade Street and Jenks Avenue. His wife owns the establishment and Cha has been involved in running it.

The St. Paul Police Federation filed a grievance over the firings and Nathan Smith’s is the first to reach a conclusion.

“We are extremely disappointed in the arbitrator’s decision and we’re obviously thinking about Nate Smith and his family,” said Paul Kuntz, federation president.

Police Chief Todd Axtell said he “took decisive action on this matter in June.”

“Officers are expected to protect the public and tell the truth,” Axtell said in a statement. “Failing to live up to these standards negatively affects everyone who wears the badge and erodes community trust. There is no room for deceit on the St. Paul Police Department. Thankfully, our department is made up of dedicated law enforcement professionals who are committed to living up to our high standards.”

PD: OFFICER WAS DISHONEST; UNION: HE HAD GOOD RECORD

The police department established 13 of 16 acts of misconduct, arbitrator Stephen Befort wrote.

In summarizing the positions of each side, Befort wrote that the police department described Smith’s “behavior as egregious in taking steps to prevent harm through the use of weapons and in not offering assistance to injured individuals. The behavior was exacerbated … by overt acts of dishonesty, such as Smith turning his (body-worn camera) away from the action and making false statements” during the internal affairs investigation.

Axtell viewed Smith’s actions “in laughing at and mocking the mostly Hmong bar patrons as wholly inconsistent with the objective of (providing) community service with respect,” Befort continued.

The union, meanwhile, said Smith should have received a lesser penalty. He did not “engage in affirmative acts of misconduct such as inflicting harm through the excessive use of force, but instead involved less egregious acts of failing to intervene and assist,” Befort summarized.

Smith testified “he did not use force to stop Tou Cha’s aggressive behavior out of a concern that active intervention could escalate tensions,” according to the document.

The St. Paul Police Federation also argued that terminating Smith would be inconsistent with treatment given other officers for misconduct and that the officer’s “long and good work record mitigates the need to resort to the ultimately penalty,” Befort wrote. Smith became a St. Paul officer in 2012.