A Pittsburgh judge has overturned the reinstatement of a police officer who punched a black man 10 times before his death

On Wednesday, a judge overturned an arbitration panel’s decision to reinstate a Pittsburgh police officer fired for his role in the death of a homeless man suspected of attempting to steal a bicycle.

Officer Keith Edmonds was fired in March 2022, five months after he tasered Jim Rogers 10 times. The meeting was captured on police cameras.

“They’re terrible to watch.” he said Citizens Police Review Board Executive Director Elizabeth Pittinger. “The inhumanity we see in these films is simply unthinkable.”

The city settled the Rogers family’s lawsuit for $8 million. Edmonds, nonetheless, argued that his actions had nothing to do with Roger’s death and won his appeal before the arbitration panel by a 2-to-1 majority.

In his ruling, Judge Alan D. Hertzberg he wrote that the two arbitrators who supported Edmonds’ reinstatement “deprived the city of its due process rights by unfairly concluding that Police Officer Keith Edmonds had not violated city policies, rules or regulations when he admitted that he had done so and when the evidence of violations was overwhelming.”

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1 President Robert Swartzwelder, one of the arbitrators named by Hertzberg, called the decision “an egregious departure from legal precedent” and predicted that a state court would overturn it.

(*10*) Swartzwelder said. “The medical evidence overwhelmingly established that Officer Edmonds did not cause the unfortunate death of Jim Rogers. It appears that local politics, rather than legally binding precedent, are at play here.”

The police praised this decision. In a statement, the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP called the ruling “a significant step forward and should only be considered the beginning of a broader movement for justice.”

Rogers, who was already in custody, told officers he couldn’t breathe and asked to be hospitalized. However, body camera footage showed that officers delayed leaving the scene until EMS staff arrived to treat their injuries. By the time Rogers reached the hospital two blocks away, he was unconscious and later died.

“We are grateful that the court’s decision will allow the City of Pittsburgh to hold city employees accountable for their actions and ensure that every resident is treated with dignity and respect,” said Mayor Ed Gainey. “We hope this ruling will allow us to close a painful chapter for all those involved in the death of Jim Rogers.”

Since 2022, the Gainey administration has fired 16 officers, a rise from the previous administration led by Mayor Bill Peduto, which fired 10 officers between 2018 and 2021, in response to statistics obtained by a Pittsburgh-based advocacy group.

“I think the message is loud and clear that police misconduct will not be tolerated,” said Brandi Fisher, president of the Alliance for Police Accountability.