‘Message Is Loud and Clear’: Pittsburgh Judge Gives Boot to Officer Involved In ‘Horrendous’ Death of Homeless Black Man After Cop Reinstated By Board

A judge on Wednesday overruled an arbitration board’s decision to reinstate a Pittsburgh cop fired for his role in the death of a homeless man suspected of trying to steal a bike. Officer Keith Edmonds was dismissed in March 2022, five months after shocking Jim Rogers with a Taser 10 times. The encounter was captured on police body cameras. “They are horrendous to see,” said Citizen Police Review Board Executive Director Elizabeth Pittinger. “The inhumanity that we observe in those videos is just unconscionable.” Pittsburgh police officers surround Jim Rogers in Bloomfield in September 2022. (Photo: YouTube screenshot/CBS Pittsburgh) The city settled a lawsuit from Rogers’ family for $8 million. But Edmonds argued his actions had nothing to do with Roger’s death and won his appeal before the arbitration board by a 2-1 vote. In his ruling, Judge Alan D. Hertzberg wrote that two arbitrators who supported Edmonds’ reinstatement “deprived the city of its due process rights by dishonestly finding that police officer Keith Edmonds did not violate a city policy, rule or regulation, when he admitted that he did and when the evidence of violations was overwhelming.” Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1 President Robert Swartzwelder, one of...