Another arbitrator upheld the St. Paul police chief’s decision to fire an officer who failed to intervene in an assault outside Checkerboard Pizza back in 2018.
In explaining his decision, which was issued earlier this month, the arbitrator said there was “preponderant evidence” to prove officer Robert Luna made several “false statements” about what happened and also “failed to act” at the scene, both of which violated the departments’ policies and rules.
Chief Todd Axtell fired Luna as well as four of his colleagues last June after an internal affairs investigation determined that they stood by when the assaults broke out in June of 2018.
Tou Cha, who resigned as a St. Paul officer in 2005, was involved in the assault, and pleaded guilty last summer to hitting his wife’s nephew in the head that night. His wife owns the establishment and Cha has been involved in running it.
The St. Paul Police Federation filed a grievance over the firings and Luna’s is the second to reach a conclusion. An arbitrator previously found just cause for Officer Nathan Smith’s termination in the case.
In arguing the justification for Luna’s firing, Axtell testified that St. Paul citizens deserve better than Luna’s conduct that night, according to the arbitrator’s report.
In addition to failing to intervene in the assault, the report found that Luna also failed to properly investigate the assault after the fact.
The union claimed that the punishment was excessive, as Luna has reportedly maintained that he doesn’t believe he witnessed an assault that night, rather the actions of a “security staff” dealing with a “belligerent, large crowd,” the report said.
The arbitrator determined that the city proved that position was not supported by the facts.