Cop accused of lying got raise, collects back pay after agreeing to resign

BATON ROUGE – A fired Baton Rouge Police officer who successfully fought his termination, was essentially reinstated then resigned to collect a severance was paid just more than $15,000 in owed wages.

WBRZ learned the details through a public records request filed by the station’s Investigative Unit.

Yuseff Hamadeh collected $15,353.96 in back pay for the time between when he was fired and then reinstated by the civil service board. Hamadeh resigned from Baton Rouge Police in late February.

Hamadeh was fired in October following a months-long investigation into an altercation he had with an individual during a traffic stop in August. Hamadeh claimed the person he was chasing shot at him during the stop and he had to return fire. The man was arrested but an internal investigation by the police department found Hamadeh’s body camera and in-car camera were not recording during the incident and recordings along with video from a neighbor's home did not align with Hamadeh's account of events.

But, the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board overturned his termination on grounds proper protocols were not followed during a lie detector test.

Hamadeh and the department reached a settlement instead of him being allowed back on the force.

Police said it was too risky to allow Hamadeh to police the streets again: “We believe it’s in the best interest of this community that Mr. Hamadeh is no longer policing the citizens and visitors of the City of Baton Rouge”, Chief Murphy Paul said.

Hamadeh made about $48,000 in 2018, including over-time.

At some point recently, Hamadeh was also given a raise based on his tenure with the department.

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