Former Minneapolis cop alleges wrongful firing, defamation
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A former Minneapolis police officer alleges in a lawsuit against the city that Chief Brian O’Hara defamed and wrongfully fired him over an incident at his previous job.
Tyler Timberlake joined the Minneapolis Police Department in January but left in early July amid public criticism of alleged excessive force when he was an officer in suburban Fairfax County, Va.
On video from June 5, 2020, Timberlake, who’s white, can be seen subduing Lamonta Gladney with a Taser and pinning him the ground after apparently mistaking him for another Black man. Gladney was unarmed, pacing in a street in distress, and was allegedly found to have had cocaine and PCP in his system.
A jury acquitted the officer of assault, and Gladney later received a $150,000 civil settlement.
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The Minnesota Reformer initially reported on Timberlake’s hiring in April, but the initial incident, Timberlake’s trial and Gladney’s civil suit had been reported widely by Washington, D.C. news outlets.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Timberlake alleges that O’Hara lied to the public when he said that he knew little about the incident. O’Hara told reporters at a July 10 news conference that during his second day as chief, he observed Timberlake’s final job interview but did not participate in it.
Timberlake claims otherwise. In his civil complaint, the former officer says that at the November 8, 2022 interview he met with O’Hara and three other MPD officials and “the panel and Timberlake discussed the critical incident and subsequent court proceedings in great detail.”
Timberlake said he “spoke directly to Chief O’Hara and indicated he was concerned about he would be treated” because of the Virginia incident, and “O’Hara said in substance that he did not care about the prior critical incident.”
A city spokesperson tells MPR News that the city attorney’s office is reviewing Timberlake’s lawsuit.