Hollywood police fired six of its own this week -- most of whom were accused of taking part in the doctoring of a police report after a car crash with an alleged drunken driver.
The employees received notices last Wednesday that Police Chief Chad Wagner intended to fire them. But they were given five days to appeal to Wagner and met with the chief and their attorneys Monday.
Tuesday, they were fired: Officers Joel Francisco and Dewey Pressley, Community Service Officer Karim Thomas, Sgt. Andrew Diaz and crime scene technician Andrea Tomassi. A criminal investigation remains open.
Officer Oscar Sola-Vega was terminated for a separate matter related to an accusation that he worked his off-duty detail during his police shift Sept. 25.
The terminations of the other five stem from how they handled the reporting of a car accident about midnight Feb. 16, when Francisco rear-ended Alexandra Torrens-Vilas' car.
In a recording taken while Torrens-Vilas sat in the back seat of a police cruiser, officers can be heard discussing how to distort the facts to shift blame from the officer.
In a copy of that recording posted on The Sun Sentinel, parts of the conversation are muddled but one officer says what sounds like: ``We are going to bend this a little bit because she is drunk, so it is what it is.''
Torrens-Vilas was arrested on a drunken driving charge, but the case was later dropped.
The fired employees are expected to file grievances with City Manager Cameron Benson and ultimately will likely go to arbitration.
Jeff Marano, a union leader for the Police Benevolent Association, said Wagner reacted to the negative nationwide publicity about the case. ``I think it was pressure from elected officials on both the manager and the chief and the PBA is in it for the long road,'' he said.
Does the union have proof elected officials exerted pressure? ``I am hoping we can develop that proof,'' he said.
The union recently submitted a public record request to the city for communications involving Mayor Peter Bober and other officials about the investigations.
Bober could not be reached Wednesday but last week defended the chief's decision.
Attorney Al Milian, representing Diaz, questioned why Wagner fired the workers before the outcome of the state attorney investigation.
``I don't understand why the city of Hollywood decided to terminate them without a criminal probe completed,'' Milian said. ``You don't throw away decades of procedure and due process unless it's been politically motivated.''
But the majority of the City Commission expressed support for Wagner's actions. ``I have absolute full confidence in Chief Wagner and how he has handled it,'' City Commissioner Heidi O'Sheehan said after Wagner announced his intent to fire the employees last week.
Wagner, who rose through the ranks and was named interim police chief in 2007, did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.
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