CLEVELAND, Ohio — Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland police officer who fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice, will remain fired after losing a challenge to his firing.
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Jeff Follmer said Loehmann lost his arbitration over being fired not for shooting Tamir, but for lying on his application to Cleveland police.
Follmer said he would hold a news conference later in the day to address arbitrator James Rimmel’s decision. CPPA attorney Henry Hilow said the union will appeal the arbitrator’s decision.
“Perception and reality don’t match up in this case as to why he was discharged,” Hilow said.
Rimmel found that Loehmann intentionally omitted information on his application.
“What strikes me as disconcerting is that even when afforded the opportunity to explain the reasons for his departure, he remained evasive and not forthcoming,” Rimmel wrote.
Loehmann was a Cleveland police officer for less than eight months before the November 2014. He shot Tamir in less than three seconds after arriving at Cudell Recreation Center.
A disciplinary letter released in January specifically says that Loehmann lied about how his short stint at the Independence Police Department ended.
Loehmann was allowed to resign from the Independence department after six months following a series of incidents where supervisors determined he was unfit to be a police officer.
The disciplinary letter cites a letter in Loehmann's personnel file from Independence that says he was emotionally immature and had "an inability to emotionally function." The letter also cites an emotional breakdown Loehmann had on the gun range in Independence.
Cleveland officials said in the letter that Loehmann was supposed to disclose that information. He was also supposed to say in his application that he failed a 2009 written exam when applying to work as an officer in Maple Heights. Loehmann never mentioned the Maple Heights test.
Arbitrator rules Loehmann intentionally withheld facts
Loehmann also applied at several other police agencies after he was allowed to resign from Independence, including Euclid and RTA police.
A Euclid police sergeant and an RTA police detective both testified during the arbitration hearings that they believed Loehmann intentionally lied to them during his interview about why he left Independence, Rimmel’s decision said.
Loehmann said in those interviews, which happened prior to his hiring in Cleveland, that he left the smaller suburban police department in search of “more action,” that he wanted to work for a larger city and that he left for “personal reasons.” Rimmel also wrote that during Loehmann’s pre-disciplinary hearing with Cleveland that Loehmann backtracked and said he couldn’t remember why he left Independence.
“A questionable lapse in memory,” Rimmel wrote.
Rimmel took issue with Loehmann writing on his Cleveland police application that he left the job because he resigned on his own and never provided more context about his departure. He said Loehmann’s response was “technically correct,” but lacked context.
“Those terms in no way provided any insight as to what the circumstances/objectives were surrounding his resignation,” Rimmel wrote. “These terms were clearly ambiguous and far from complete.”
Cleveland failed to investigate Loehmann’s background, arbitrator finds
Rimmel also said he partially agreed with the union’s argument that the Cleveland police department failed in properly investigating Loehmann’s background before he was hired.
He wrote that Independence was “not entirely forthcoming” to Cleveland police about the circumstances of Loehmann’s resignation and that the Personnel Unit in charge of conducting background checks “missed red-flags and did not investigate [Loehmann’s] background with requisite diligence and thoroughness.”
Rimmel wrote that “blame can be distributed among others” but that he ultimately agreed with the city that their shortcomings “cannot be used to exonerate or alleviate” Loehmann.
Loehmann’s partner that day, Frank Garmback, was initially suspended 10 days without pay for driving his cruiser too close to Tamir. An arbitrator cut that suspension in half.
Loehmann also failed at several other attempts to become a police officer at several departments in the Cleveland area.
Three officers -- a detective, sergeant and lieutenant-- in the police department’s personnel unit, which conducts background checks on potential hires, also were disciplined for failing to discover the circumstances surrounding Loehmann’s resignation from Independence police.
They also did not discover that Loehmann failed a portion of his test to become a Cuyahoga County sheriff’s deputy that showed he was mentally unfit for police work, according to the transcript of his disciplinary hearing. Loehmann also did not disclose that he did not pass his test for a position with Maple Heights police. He never put on his application that he even took the test in Maple Heights, which is a violation of the city policy.
The city paid a $6 million settlement to Tamir’s family, which is likely the largest settlement the city has paid in a police-shooting case.
Loehmann previously cleared of wrongdoing in shooting
A review committee comprised of city officials that took the place of a normal internal affairs investigation, called the Critical Incident Response Committee, found that neither Loehmann nor Garmback violated any police policies.
They concluded that Garmback took a path towards Tamir that other officers regularly used, that he wasn’t driving too fast and that he tried to stop sooner than he did, but skidded on the wet grass.
That put Loehmann in a position where he got out of the cruiser and was directly in line with Tamir. Dispatcher Constance Hollinger had told the officers that someone had a gun at the park, but failed to tell them the initial 911 caller said that it was “probably a juvenile” and that the gun was “probably fake.”
Hollinger received an eight-day, unpaid suspension for failing to relay critical information to Beth Mandl, a dispatcher who sent Garmback and Loehmann to the recreation center to investigate a report of a “guy with a gun” scaring people outside the center.
Hollinger did not tell Mandl that a 911 caller told her that Tamir was "probably a child" and the airsoft gun was "probably fake," officials said.
Mandl later resigned.
Loehmann in October was hired by the Ohio village of Bellaire to be a part-time officer. He backed out of his position after news of his hiring became public.
Rimmel also wrote in his decision that he did not take into consideration public pressure and political factors surrounding the shooting that garnered international attention.
“This arbitrator would like to be very clear that this opinion and award is neither influenced nor impacted by public opinion, perceived “political correctness” from either side of the spectrum, the media’s interpretation of events, or the opinions, thoughts or believes of any individual, their representatives or any other third party,” Rimmel wrote.