Cleveland police patch

In arguing for the reinstatement of Cleveland police officer Daniel Flannery, who was fired in 2011 after he got into a drunken bar fight and lost his Cleveland police badge and RTA-issued gun, the police union said other officers had committed far worse offenses and were allowed to keep their jobs.

(Cory Shaffer, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland police officer fired after a drunken bar fight where he lost his service weapon and badge and didn't tell his supervisors about it for days has returned to the force after a federal arbitrator ruled his firing was excessive.

Daniel Flannery won back his job in part because the head of the union that represents Cleveland police officers argued that there are officers on the force who have done much worse and were not fired.

A Cuyahoga County judge on Dec. 10 denied an appeal from the city fighting the reinstatement of Flannery, 49, in a case that city officials say underscores their struggle to discipline cops who break the rules. Their claim comes in the wake of a highly critical Department of Justice report that found officers are often not held accountable.

"The officers cited in the other cases have committed assaults, domestic violence, theft, felony offenses, untruthfulness, and other violent crimes, and have been allowed to keep their jobs with the city," the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association argued in arbitration hearings.

Specifically, CPPA president Jeffrey Follmer referred to separate cases in which:

one officer pulled his wife out of her car and fired off eight shots into it because he did not want her to get the car in a divorce settlement;

another got drunk and threatened his girlfriend with a shotgun;

another officer shot his gun "in a threatening manner" while intoxicated;

an officer pulled his gun during a drunken wedding fight;

a female officer smeared animal feces on her own apartment walls during a rent dispute, and told her landlord to pick her keys up at the department's gun range;

another officer fled the scene of an accident after he hit a man on a motorcycle.

The Dec. 10 ruling came six days after U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the Justice Department found evidence that Cleveland police officers engage in a pattern of excessive force, and the department lacks proper training and an enforcement mechanism to hold officers accountable.

Mayor Frank Jackson bristled at some aspects of the report. In a Dec. 11 conversation with reporters, Jackson argued that the city has tried to discipline several officers, only to see the punishment weakened by a federal arbitrator.

City spokesman Dan Williams said Flannery's case highlights the administration's frustrations.

"This is just one of many cases where the right actions by the city were taken to terminate or discipline (an officer) and the courts/arbitrators have overturned the decision," Williams said.

Flannery graduated from the 128th Cleveland Police Academy in June 2011, and was immediately placed on layoff status because the city had no money to hire the class, the city argued in an arbitration hearing. The recruits still had to abide by department rules and could be terminated for off-duty behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse.

Flannery found work as an officer with the Greater Cleveland RTA police force. While off-duty on Dec. 4, 2011, Flannery took his Cleveland police badge and RTA-issued handgun inside The Frosty Beaver Saloon, a Lorain Avenue bar near Cleveland's West Park neighborhood.

Flannery drank heavily. He harassed and groped other customers before the owner asked him to leave. The bartender said that Flannery flashed his badge and said that he was a laid off Cleveland cop just before two men escorted him out of the bar.

What happened next was unclear: the two customers told police Flannery pulled the gun from his holster and threatened to kill them both. Later, in sworn testimony, Flannery denied he made any threats.

Flannery left as the men returned to the bar. Flannery returned a short time later and tried to get back inside the bar. The customers walked outside, and punches were thrown. One of the customers punched Flannery in the face, and his badge fell to the ground.

Flannery backed off, got into his black Chevrolet Blazer and drove away, leaving the badge and his credit card behind.

Flannery also lost his gun that night but it's unclear from records how. Rather than going to work to face his supervisors, Flannery called off three days in a row, saying that his mother was having problems, according to the arbitrator's ruling.

RTA fired Flannery after learning what happened at the bar. They also cited him for not immediately telling his supervisors he lost his gun.

Cleveland police launched its own internal investigation, and in February 2012 brought Flannery up on four internal offenses – bringing a gun into a liquor establishment and drinking at least three drinks; displaying his badge and identifying himself as a Cleveland police officer; brandishing his weapon and threatening to kill the customers; and failing to notify both RTA and Cleveland police.

Then-Safety Director Martin Flask affirmed the charges, and fired Flannery in July.

Flannery admitted to carrying his RTA gun into the bar, drinking at least three drinks, losing his gun and not telling his RTA supervisors about it.

The Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Jeffrey Follmer filed a grievance over the decision that same month. Follmer argued that internal investigators did not prove that Flannery showed his badge, pulled out his gun or threatened the customers.

Follmer said Flannery had gone through Alcoholic's Anonymous, and a psychologist determined Flannery was fit to return for duty. That, paired with the other instances of officers doing worse, proved Flannery's firing was excessive and inconsistent, Follmer argued in the hearings.

The federal arbitrator, James Mancini agreed. In his July 2013 opinion, Mancini wrote that because the two customers who kicked Flannery from the bar said they did not see Flannery pull the badge, and internal investigators did not conduct their own interviews to establish that Flannery pulled out his badge and gun and threatened to kill people, those charges had to be thrown out.

Mancini said Flannery's actions deserved a harsh punishment, but termination was too far. The union had also asked for Flannery to receive back-pay, but lost that argument.