A city board has ordered the reinstatement of Denver Sheriff Department Deputy Thomas Ford, who was fired in 2014 for punching an inmate at the Downtown Detention Center.

The order said Ford should have been suspended and should receive backpay for lost wages and benefits for all but 40 days of the nearly 18 months he was fired.

The order came Thursday from the five-member Career Service Authority Board, which is appointed by the mayor and has jurisdiction over hiring and firing decisions for most of the city’s employees.

Ford was fired in September 2014, and his punching of an inmate — caught on jailhouse video — became a tipping point for the troubled sheriff’s department.

Stephanie O’Malley, executive director of the Department of Safety, issued a strong statement, saying the board’s decision was unacceptable. The city will appeal the decision to the Denver District Court and seek a stay to prevent Ford’s immediate return.

“By frequently reversing sound disciplinary orders issued by my office, the Career Service Board is undermining our authority as an employer and preventing us from appropriately disciplining deputies who have violated department rules and regulations,” O’Malley’s statement said. “Based on the facts and evidence, Deputy Ford clearly used inappropriate force during his interaction with the inmate, which is unacceptable to us and to the community.”

DOCUMENT: Read the board ruling reinstating Deputy Thomas Ford.

A second deputy who had been fired in connection with the same incident, William Lewis, already has been reinstated and given back pay.

Ford was fired for punching inmate Kyle Askins, who had been insulting the deputy and threatening him and his family while being booked at the jail.

In the jail video, Ford is seen walking from a computer kiosk toward Askins, who was sitting on a bench. The inmate stood as Ford approached and Ford punched him in the head. Askins fell immediately.

VIDEO: See video of Deputy Thomas Ford punching an inmate.

Ford was fired for using excessive force and then lying about it during the internal investigation.

Ford told investigators that he believed Askins was on the verge of attacking when he stood up. The career service board accepted that account, calling it “a mistaken, albeit unreasonable belief that an attack was imminent.”

The board also took the safety department’s disciplinary rules to task. The rules, known within the department as the disciplinary matrix, are intended to create fair treatment for anyone who violates policy.

The order cites five other excessive force cases where deputies received different levels of punishment, including Brady Lovingier, who was suspended for 30 days for slamming an inmate into a metal courtroom window frame, and Ned St. Germain, who was given a 10-day suspension for excessive force for inappropriate use of a Taser.

“…using the disciplinary matrix and handbook, the agency is issuing ten day suspensions, thirty day suspensions, forty-two-day suspensions and discharges, all for acts that appear to be of comparable severity,” the order said.

Ford is the third deputy to be reinstated by the board since mid-November.

Lewis, who was standing nearby when Ford threw the punch, was fired for failing to report the excessive force case and for lying about what he had seen.

Lewis had insisted that he did not see the punch, although the video seems to show him turning his head just in time.

However, the Career Service Authority Board ruled that the video did not provide indisputable evidence to contradict Lewis’ claim. The board also accused the Department of Safety of conducting a witch hunt and searching for excuses to fire deputies.

In its written order for Ford, the board said the safety department was using deputies’ reports as “lie detector tests.”

“We do not believe the report-writing requirements were ever intended to act as constant, nonstop honesty tests, as the Agency appears to be using them,” the board said.

The third deputy was Rosanna Jenkins, who had made racially offensive comments in July 2013 that caused unrest in the women’s unit at the department’s Smith Road complex. Jenkins had said during the internal investigation that she did not realize the phrase “Black is wack” would be offensive.

By the time the Ford case came to light in 2014, the sheriff’s department had already been embarrassed by a series of excessive force episodes.

Days after the Ford video was leaked, Gary Wilson stepped down as sheriff.

At a news conference announcing Wilson’s resignation, Mayor Michael Hancock said the incident “took a little more out of my heart and soul.”

That day, Hancock pledged to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the department to end the cycle of inmate abuse. Already, a federal judge had ordered a similar outside evaluation.

Now, sheriff’s department critics fear the career service board’s willingness to overturn dismissals may undermine the sheriff’s department reform.

Qusair Mohamedbhai, a Denver attorney representing Askins and who has successfully sued the sheriff’s department in another high-profile excessive force case, was critical of the board.

“Darth Career Service Authority wins again,” he said. “Denver employees receive paid vacations when they deserve felonies.”

Denise Maes, the ACLU of Colorado’s public policy director, said in an e-mail: “This really sends the wrong message at a time when the Sheriff’s department is supposedly focused on reform and accountability.”

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