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A Bellevue police officer fired for being overweight is officially back on the clock.
Christopher D. Parent, 53, was reinstated Wednesday afternoon after nearly 20 months of legal battles. He will resume duty as a road patrol officer in the next few days, said Michael Polk, an attorney representing the city.
Parent and his attorney, Steve Delaney, were not immediately available for comment. Parent's mother, Luona Parent, reached by phone Wednesday, said, “I'm glad he was reinstated.”
Parent gets his gun and badge back because the Nebraska Supreme Court last month declined to take up the City of Bellevue's motion to re-examine a Nebraska Court of Appeals decision that overturned his termination.
He was fired Nov. 28, 2007, after working for the department since 1981, mostly as a detective, but later on patrol.
Bellevue now will have to pay Parent more than $95,000, which doesn't include the value of benefits he would have received, according to the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the police union.
Bellevue Police Lt. Mark Elbert has said Parent — whose 2005-issued Nebraska driver's license listed him at 5-foot-9 and 300 pounds — was fired under a policy that required officers to be physically fit. The city has since clarified the policy.
Following an Aug. 28, 2007, combat shooting exercise, Parent's fellow officers reported him to the command staff. An internal investigation determined that Parent had not maintained a “high level of physical, mental and emotional conditioning.”
In March, the Nebraska Court of Appeals reversed the Bellevue Civil Service Commission's decision to uphold Parent's termination.
The appellate court's opinion states that under the Bellevue department policy used to justify the firing, Parent satisfied the only objective standard imposed. The court said he maintained “at least a ‘fair' level of physical wellness pursuant to the standards contained within the ... Wellness Program Manual.”
That paragraph in the policy has since been removed.
“It was a policy that was part of an outdated wellness program, and it was removed because of that,” Michael Polk, an attorney representing the city, has said.
The current policy says, “Police Officers are called upon to perform a variety of tasks that require physical endurance and agility. This dictates that officers maintain a high level of physical, mental and emotional conditioning, which can only be acquired through regular exercise, proper diet and utilizing time.”
Contact the writer:
444-1336, leia.mendoza@owh.com
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