By Rich Lord
One former Pittsburgh police officer who was fired following the 2021 death of Jim Rogers won’t be returning to the beat any time soon.
Three others, though, are back at work, and the city issued them six-figure back-pay allocations.
On Wednesday, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Alan Hertzberg overturned an arbitration decision that would have put Keith Edmonds back in a city police uniform. Edmonds repeatedly shocked Rogers with his Taser, and the 54-year-old man died a short time later.
In a two-page order, Hertzberg wrote that two arbitrators “deprived the city of its due process rights by dishonestly finding that police officer Keith Edmonds did not violate a city policy, rule or regulation, when he admitted that he did and when the evidence of violations was overwhelming.” Hertzberg wrote that the arbitrators exceeded their authority, invaded the city’s right to manage, inappropriately considered Edmonds’ training and curtailed cross-examination of the fired officer.
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