A Denver Police Department officer should be reinstated after he was fired for using excessive force against a female suspect inside a holding cell because city officials violated his right to due process during the disciplinary process, a civil service hearing officer ruled.

The hearing officer, Terry Tomsick, ruled Wednesday that Patrolman James Medina instead should serve a 60-day suspension and be on probation for two years, according to Tomsick’s written order.

Medina, who was fired in March, also should receive back pay to June 3, Tomsick’s order said.

Denver’s Department of Public Safety will appeal Tomsick’s decision, meaning Medina will not return to work until the dispute is resolved, said Daelene Mix, a department spokeswoman.

Tomsick found sufficient evidence that Medina had violated five department policies, including inappropriate force and duty to report use of force.

However, the city erred when Jess Vigil, the Department of Public Safety’s deputy director, decided to increase the severity of Medina’s punishment by firing him without warning, Tomsick ruled.

Police Cmdr. Michael Battista, acting on behalf of Chief Robert White, had recommended consecutive 30-day suspensions and two years of probation, Tomsick’s order said. Medina had never been advised that termination was on the table.

The situation was “muddied by having the deputy director inadvertently become the judge, jury and executioner,” Tomsick wrote.

However, the police commander never should have recommended that punishment because it did not fall within established disciplinary guidelines, Mix said. Under those guidelines, Medina should have faced a minimum 90-day suspension and a maximum of termination.

Medina’s trouble began July 10, 2014, when Seryina Trujillo was taken into custody after she interfered with officers and firefighters who were taking two men to the Denver Cares detox unit.

Trujillo was handcuffed after a struggle and was being led to a police car when she spit in the face of Officer Cheryl Smith, according to Medina’s disciplinary report. As Trujillo was being placed into a patrol car, she kicked Medina in the face. He responded by punching her in the face, the report said.

She later pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, according to court records.

At a holding cell in the District 2 substation, Trujillo refused to take off her shoes and belt. The two got into a struggle that was captured by a video camera in the cell.

Medina pinned Trujillo by placing his knee on her chest during a struggle to remove her belt and shoes.

She appeared to go limp.

Medina filled out a use-of-force report for punching Trujillo in the police car, but he waited five days to fill out a report for the holding cell scuffle.

Medina should have called for medical help when Trujillo slid to the floor. And he could have prevented the fight by asking for another officer’s help or by allowing her to keep her shoes and belt by appointing someone to monitor her in the cell, documents said.

Public safety officials are not concerned that police commanders recommended a lighter sentence for Medina, Mix said. That’s because Stephanie O’Malley, the city’s safety manager, has the ultimate authority on officer discipline.

“A disagreement isn’t discouraged,” Mix said. “This isn’t something we feel needs reviewed. The system corrected it.”

Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips