Richfield, police union clash over punishment of officer who slapped a 19-year-old

The case of a Richfield police officer who was fired and reinstated reached the Minnesota Court of Appeals Thursday.

Richfield's attorney Marylee Abrams told members of a three-judge panel that officer Nate Kinsey's reinstatement poses a public safety risk. She said in 2015, Kinsey failed to report that he used force during a traffic stop. During the incident, Kinsey pushed and slapped 19-year-old Kamal Gelle.

Abrams said the city fired him in part because he'd been coached or counseled for underreporting previous uses of force.

"We can't train it away — we've tried that," said Abrams. "We can't mentor it away, because we've tried that. Because of the prior offenses and because of the prior warnings that we have at our disposal."

Kinsey is still on leave. And if he's allowed to return to duty, Abrams said there's no place the police department can assign him that doesn't involve him having law enforcement interactions with the public.

However, Kinsey's attorney says he's no threat.

Attorney Isaac Kaufman is the general counsel for the union Law Enforcement Labor Services, which represented Kinsey in his arbitration.

Kaufman said Richfield's concerns about Kinsey posing a threat to public safety are hyperbole. He also denied that Kinsey's past problems with report writing would paint him as a dishonest or untrustworthy cop.

"He was given remedial training in 2013, after which his report writing improved," said Kaufman. "All of which I believe would serve to mitigate whatever impact this particular mistake, this particular oversight, might have."

Kaufman said the state's labor laws allow for courts to overturn arbitrator awards in only the rarest of cases. And he says Kinsey's failure to report his use of force doesn't justify his firing.

More than a dozen police and labor unions filed amicus briefs in support of the lower court decision which supports the arbitrator's award to Kinsey.

"An expansion of the limited statutory grounds for vacating an arbitration award ... may result in more frequent attempts by employers to vacate arbitration awards," reads one brief from a group of unions representing transit workers, electrical workers and engineers. "This would directly affect the Unions' ability to utilize arbitration as a relatively timely, cost efficient and final and binding means of dispute resolution."

Cities like Richfield are concerned that arbitrators undermine their authority to make local decisions.

"Labor arbitrators are fairly insulated and they are not out there meeting with members of the community. They are not the ones who are going to be held accountable at the end of the day," said Minneapolis city attorney Susan Segal. "It's very frustrating for progressive minded chiefs in cities who are trying to move their departments forward."