Fort Worth police officer terminated in wake of perjury charge is suing the city
A former Fort Worth police officer is suing the city over his termination about 10 months ago after jurors found him guilty of lying about an encounter in which he arrested a man waiting outside of a hospital.
Jon Romer, who was accused of attacking Henry Newsom in November 2016 without telling him he was under arrest for trespassing, hopes the city can reverse its decision, according to the petition filed in Tarrant County court on Tuesday. Romer is seeking a review of a hearing examiner’s rejection of the appeal of his termination he filed in December 2019, naming Fort Worth and its civil service commission as defendants.
If the court were to grant him this review, he would still have to win an appeal of his civil service indefinite suspension before he could possibly be reinstated as a police officer, according to the suit.
That would represent a big reversal for the City of Fort Worth, after Romer’s December 2019 guilty verdict on the charge of perjury led to swift condemnation of his actions from officials including Police Chief Ed Kraus. Lt. Brandon O’Neil, a police spokesman, told the Star-Telegram at the time the department respected the jury’s guilty verdict and had faith in the criminal justice system.
According to the lawsuit, Romer is also appealing the conviction.
Lance Wyatt, Romer’s attorney, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. A woman who answered the phone at his law office on Wednesday indicated he was out of town for a trial.
Representatives for the City of Fort Worth and the City of Fort Worth Civil Service Commission didn’t respond to messages left on Wednesday.
Romer submitted his original appeal shortly after the jury a Tarrant County district court made its ruling and the police department terminated him. The charges stem from the November 2016 incident where he arrested Newsom outside of Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, telling him “let’s go” but apparently not stating he was under arrest, according to testimony. Video showed Romer punch Newsom in the head before putting him into a headlock and spinning him to the ground.
He had been hired by the hospital’s parent company to enforce state laws while he was off-duty. With the help of two security guards, he arrested the then-20-year-old on criminal trespass and resisting arrest charges, records show. But those charges were dismissed less than a year later, in March 2017.
Newsom stated in court he was only waiting for his mother to pick him up after finishing a treatment, telling the jury, “I didn’t understand why his hands were forcibly on me.” He claimed he was punched in his face and in his mid-section, from the time he was standing to the time he was on the ground.
Those speaking on behalf of Romer argued in court Newsom showed non-compliance, and ultimately justified the aggressive arrest, by pivoting his hip and tensing his muscles. “Mr. Newsom pivoted 180 degrees and planted his feet firmly and was in a position to strike,” Fort Worth Police Capt. Shawn Stone testified in court.
In the recordings, Romer didn’t tell Newsom he was being placed under arrest for trespassing — a fact that jurors focused on in court. Romer testified that he did say so but couldn’t explain why it was at no point audible in the videos.
Appealing the termination
The lawsuit states that following the jury’s guilty verdict and the police department’s prompt firing, Romer appealed the suspension and requested his case be heard in front of a third-party hearing examiner. In September, that person, Kathy Fragnoli, approved the city’s motion to dismiss his appeal for lack of jurisdiction without a hearing.
“A hearing examiner’s jurisdiction is very narrow and the examiner has no jurisdiction to rule in a manner not authorized by statute,” Wyatt wrote in the documents, referring to the Texas Local Government Code.
Romer claims Fragnoli made an error in interpreting this code, as nothing in its chapters authorized her “to take the action taken on September 21, 2020,” according to the suit. He hopes the court will strike the previous decision, the suit states, and allow him to continue his appeal of his termination in front of an independent hearing examiner.
Though no city officials could be reached for comment about the lawsuit, O’Neil, the police spokesman, said back in December police will continue to “hold all employees accountable for their actions.” And Newsom called the decision by the jury justice.
He was glad people “disregarded the badge and just looked at him (Romer) as a regular person,” Newsom said in court. “He kind of got treated like everybody else.”
Romer faced additional charges of official oppression and making a false report in connection to the November 2016 incident. The status of those trials is unclear.
Following the December 2019 guilty verdict, Romer’s was released on bond pending sentencing at a later date, according to court records.
Russel Wilson II, the special prosecutor in the aggravated perjury trial, said the jury’s ruling represented a denouncement of false testimony by police officers in situations of use of force.
“It was an important statement for Tarrant County and for the State of Texas,” he said, “to let our officers know that we have an expectation of honesty, especially when it regards something as serious as the use of force.”
