Arbitrator Tells City to Reinstate Fired Police Chief, Newton Officials Say 'No'

An arbitrator ruled that Newton had to rehire fired Police Chief Matthew Cummings and give him backpay for the year he has been gone, but city officials say there is no job to which he can return.

“The arbitrator can order him back, but there’s no job to go back to,” Newton City Solicitor Donnalyn B. Lynch Kahn told the Boston Globe.

Cummings has been receiving 80 percent of that salary as his retirement since he was first fired, Kahn told the Globe, and under the arbitrator's decision would be eligible to receive only the 20 percent difference.

Cummings was fired by Mayor Setti Warren in Oct. 2012 for "conduct unbecoming" for kicking and swearing at police secretary Jeanne Sweeney Mooney. Mooney is suing the city for wrongful firing and also named Cummings in the suit. Her lawyers also tried to make the mayor testify but a judge ruled he did not have to do so. Mooney recently returned to work at the Newton Police Department.

The arbitrator also found that the incident where Cummings kicked Sweeney was an "unfortunate" bad joke, but that he had no bad intent, the Globe reported.

Read the entire Boston Globe article here.