Officer fired in June after questions on resisting arrest charge.
By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo reinstated an officer Monday whom he had fired amid allegations that the officer provided false information in an arrest affidavit and a police report late last year.
Officer Aaron York will return to the force today after Acevedo changed the findings to “inconclusive” in an internal affairs investigation that reviewed whether York had tampered with a government record and was dishonest, attorney Tom Stribling said.
However, Acevedo sustained charges that York had engaged in insubordination and did not appropriately complete reports. Acevedo said in a one-page memo that York, who was fired in June, would not be given back pay for the time he was out of work.
York has agreed to withdraw a pending appeal asking that the discipline be overturned.
When he was fired, York had been with the department about four years.
Acevedo had said that a review of York’s patrol car video found that it was inconsistent with the version of events York described in an affidavit on the arrest of a man on East Cesar Chavez Street who was charged with public intoxication and resisting arrest.
The video showed that the man had not resisted as York had described, according to a disciplinary memo. For instance, York had said the man “tried to pull away” during the arrest, but the tape did not show forceful attempts by the man to do so.
Acevedo said he recently took another look at the case after Stribling and union representatives pointed out possible errors that had occurred when the case was being reviewed initially.
He declined to describe the errors but said action had been taken against a department employee because of the errors.
He said the four-month suspension is still significant.
“He won’t make those mistakes again,” Acevedo said.
Stribling would not discuss the changes in detail but said, “I think that the chief of police is willing to, and wants to see that discipline is accurate imposed.”
Wuthipong Tantaksinanukij, vice president of the Austin Police Association, said he had worked with Stribling to get York reinstated.
“York understands the need to review your videotapes to have an accurate account of the sequence of events,” Tantaksinanukij said.
Copyright 2008 Austin American-Statesman