A fired Crestline Police Officer has been reinstated.
 

Crestline Village Council held an appeals hearing at their regular meeting Monday night regarding the termination of Lt. Dave Garrett who has served on the force for 24 years. Council voted 5 to 1 to reinstate Garrett.

Mayor Dave Sharrock fired Garrett on  Jan. 4 in a letter. In the letter Sharrock says Garrett was fired for dishonesty, discourteous treatment of the public, neglect of duty, failure of good behavior, misdeasance, insubordination, inefficiency, nonfeasance and malfeasance for several incidents dating back 14 months.

Evidence and testimony was presented during the hearing regarding the violations that led to the firing of Garrett.

Representation for Chief Joseph Butler from Clemans Nelson & Associates stated Garrett was fired for four reasons including having a backlog of 90 cases for citizens some dating back to 2006; committing a safety violation by not restraining a suspect after calling a Code 10, meaning officer needs assistance; losing his hat badge and slamming his ticket pad on the vehicle of a local resident and swearing at him and denied the allegation when questioned about it. Council agreed to pay $481 to repair the citizen's vehicle.

Chief Butler played a cell phone video from an individual showing Garrett reportedly cursing at the citizen and slamming his ticket pad on the vehicle.

Butler claimed Garrett said the ticket pad slipped out of his hand and he denied cursing at the citizen.

Garrett's representation Karen DeSanto Kellogg said Chief Butler's representative did not have witnesses to testify about the allegations against Garrett. She said no effort was made Mayor Sharrock to make an independent inquiry to whether the termination was appropriate.

After the hearing council went into executive session and voted to reinstate Garrett.

President pro tempore Dave Crokie said council's decision was based on the all the facts that were presented during the hearing.

"It came down to how credible and how consistent the testimony was for the defense and prosecution. We as a council felt that the testimony of the prosecution was somewhat inconsistent. In all fairness we could not vote to terminate officer Garrett," Crokie said.

Crokie said Garrett will not be disciplined for any of the allegations issued against him.
 

Crokie said he hopes the police department will be able to move forward.