Judge rejects ruling to reinstate white Cincinnati Police officer who Killed Black Man in 2000

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A judge has rejected an arbitrator's ruling that would have required the city to reinstate a white police officer who was fired on grounds that he used excessive force against a black man who died in police custody. The lawyer for Patrick Caton says his client should have been reinstated last year after an arbitrator reduced Caton's firing to a five-day suspension and ordered the city to give him his job back. But the city appealed in court, and a judge Tuesday upheld the city's authority to fire Caton. The officer was cleared of criminal charges at a 2001 trial. The November 2000 death of Roger Owensby Jr., 29, in a struggle with police angered black activists. Owensby's family has a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Cincinnati and Caton. Five months after Owensby died, rioting broke out in Cincinnati after another white officer fatally shot a black man who was unarmed when he ran from police on charges of traffic offenses and fleeing police. That officer also was cleared at trial. Caton will appeal within a month to the 1st Ohio District Court of Appeals, his lawyer, William Gustavson, said Wednesday. The police union is paying Caton's legal fees. The contract between Cincinnati and its police union provides for binding arbitration in disputes like the one involving Caton, Gustavson said. Five other Cincinnati officers disciplined in Owensby's death received suspensions of one to five days, Gustavson said. The city fired Caton in February 2003 on internal disciplinary charges. City officials said Caton used excessive force against Owens by and failed to get him emergency medical care. The Hamilton County coroner ruled that Owensby died from either a choke hold or the weight of officers piling on him after Owensby had tried to run and was pulled down. Police said Owensby was placed in a police cruiser and left unattended for at least seven minutes before a police supervisor noticed that Owensby wasn't breathing. He died at a hospital. [more]