AURORA | A former Aurora police officer is appealing his firing this week to the city’s Civil Service Commission.
Officer Chris Falco was fired March 8 for violating several department policies, according to police. A department spokesman said Falco was fired because he neglected duty, had an unsatisfactory performance, and violated rules of professional conduct and responsibility.
Falco gained notoriety for his role last year in a controversial shooting that left one man dead and another injured, but sources said Falco’s firing was not connected to that shooting.
According to appeals filed by Falco’s lawyer, he is appealing his discipline in four “separate, independent and wholly unrelated events,” each of which the four-year veteran was disciplined for. Beyond his termination, Falco was suspended for 240 hours early this year in a separate case.
Specifics about the violations have not been released.
Matt Cain, administrator for the city’s Civil Service Commission, said the hearing started this week and is expected to conclude Friday.
The commission’s ruling will likely come down within a month.
Officers can choose to have their hearings open to the public, but Falco has opted to have his hearing behind closed doors.
Falco had two separate appeals scheduled before the city’s commission several months ago, but his lawyer and the city attorney’s office asked those hearings to be canceled and rescheduled as one.
Arapahoe County prosecutors last year cleared Falco of criminal wrongdoing for his role in the March 20, 2011, shooting that left Oleg Gidenko dead and Yevgeni Straystar wounded.
Last year the city reached an out-of-court settlement with Straystar and Gidenko’s families. While prosecutors cleared the Falco and other officers involved, City Attorney Charlie Richardson said the settlements for Straystar and Gidenko’s family were necessary because officers fired at a moving vehicle, a violation of department policy.
If he was cleared of wrong-doing in the shooting death and wounding, why did the city have to ‘settle out of court’ for liability? Can’t you do your job without a law suit being filed and paid by the city? He apparently didn’t shoot these two because they were ‘stand-up’ citizens, they were bad guys. Answer?