Judge clears way for fired Buffalo police officer to return to duty

An arbitration panel's decision to uphold the city's firing of police officer Kevin Murphy for misconduct during the incident was overturned by state Supreme Court Judge Amy Martoche after the Police Benevolent Association, the officers' union, filed suit to overturn the arbitration award.

In her ruling, Martoche found that the arbitrator's decision was invalid because he ignored key evidence presented by the union's attorneys during the arbitration process, including testimony from use-of-force experts, including former Buffalo Police Chief Byron Lockwood.

“Because there is no indication that the award terminating the applicant's employment was made solely on the basis of those parts of the arbitral tribunal's decision that were not vitiated by misconduct, the court is compelled to grant the application and set aside the award in its entirety,” Martoche wrote in her decision.

As Investigative Post first reported in March, the incident that led to Murphy's firing involved the officer repeatedly verbally abusing and pepper-spraying Lakisha Neal while attempting to handcuff her and place her in the back seat of a patrol car.

Footage from Murphy's body-worn camera, obtained and released by Investigative Post, shows Murphy arriving at a home in University Heights, where Neal is standing on the porch talking to several police officers already on the scene. Police received a report of a man with a gun outside the home. Seconds after getting out of his car, Murphy begins yelling at Neal, telling her to get off the porch. He walks past other officers talking to Neal, grabs her wrist, and drags her to a patrol car, where he tells her to get in the back seat. Murphy instructs her to put her hands behind her back and warns her that she will be pepper sprayed if she does not obey. After putting one handcuff on her, he sprays her with pepper spray twice while attempting to put the other handcuff on Neal. She was arrested by Murphy and charged with making false statements, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and reckless endangerment, all of which were dismissed in court.

Seven months after the incident, in March 2020, Neal filed a complaint with the internal affairs department. Murphy was suspended pending the internal affairs department's investigation and later fired by the department. The union filed for arbitration over the firing, and arbitrator Jeffrey Selchick upheld the department's decision in a ruling issued last fall.

Rodney Personious, a lawyer for the union, said in an email that he has not received any information from the city bar on whether it plans to appeal Martoche's decision or seek new arbitration, two options available to keep Murphy from returning to the agency.

Mike DeGeorge, a spokesman for the police department and the city, said in a text message that the city is “currently reviewing all available legal options.”

Personious and the union's other attorneys argued in court documents that the arbitrator ignored testimony from Lockwood and two other Buffalo Police Department employees — a police officer and a lieutenant — who were responsible for the department's use-of-force training.

“Each concluded that Officer Murphy's actions were justified under the city's use of force policy due to the offender's active and sustained physical resistance,” Personious said in the email. “The expert testimony of each witness directly contradicted the arbitrator's conclusion.”