CENTRALIA — The city of Centralia paid $117,095 in retroactive pay and benefits to the police officer who the Centralia Police Department was forced to rehire after an arbitrator ruled in the his favor in May.
The city also paid about $85,000 in legal fees throughout the two-year legal battle that stemmed from the 2012 termination.
Two years and $200,000 later, Phillip Reynolds once again carries a badge, gun and Taser as he has returned to work as a patrol officer.
Immediately following the arbitrator’s decision, it was unclear if Reynolds actually intended to return to work for the same department that fired him. When he did return to work, Reynolds was put on desk duty until he was retrained.
He has since started working patrol, which means he responds to calls for services, conducts traffic stops, arrests people and has all the normal police duties he did before his termination.
The department fired Reynolds in 2012 after repeated discipline and warnings for a long list of alleged policy violations, including excessive force and dishonesty.
Reynolds appealed his termination, arguing the department did not have just cause to fire him.
After two years of legal arguments, the arbitrator who oversaw the hearing, Kenneth James Latsch, issued his decision in early May in Reynolds’ favor, which reinstated his employment.
While the city paid Reynolds $117,095 in back pay and benefits, Centralia will recover a little more than $15,000 for the unemployment benefits it previously paid Reynolds, according to Candice Rydalch, the human resources director for the city.
The city already spent about $80,000, primarily in legal fees in defending the department’s decision to terminate Reynolds, and an additional $4,500 to the arbitrator for the nine days of work associated with overseeing the decision.
The information about the expenses the city paid and the circumstances around the firing and rehiring of Reynolds was obtained by The Chronicle through a public records request.
A 2011 internal investigation into Reynolds’ frequent use of his Taser found he excessively used it on multiple people, many of whom were involved in minor, non-violent offenses, for extended periods of time – sometimes up to 30 seconds. The investigation also found he was dishonest in his police reports about the circumstances of using the Taser.
As a result, Reynolds was suspended for two weeks without pay. He returned to duty and was ordered to undergo additional training.
The 2011 suspension, however, was not Reynolds’ first warning about his behavior. By that point, Reynolds had already received multiple verbal and written warnings about other policy violations including reckless behavior, failing to show up for trial and arresting someone without probable cause.
Despite Chief Bob Berg giving Reynolds a final warning in 2011, Reynolds’ attitude reportedly grew worse. In January 2012, the administration launched another internal investigation against Reynolds and concluded he violated eight additional policies, including insubordination, cooperation with other employees and failing to aid other officers. He then was fired.
After reviewing hundreds of pages of public records, The Chronicle published a series of articles in April about the troubled work history of Reynolds, including the alleged instances of dishonesty, prior to the arbitrator’s decision.
After reading the series in The Chronicle and learning about the allegations regarding Reynolds’ dishonesty, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer wrote a general letter to defense attorneys that will be attached to any future case file involving Reynolds.
The letter states that the arbitrator “made findings that could be interpreted as a comment on Officer Reynolds’ credibility” and directs them to contact the city of Centralia for further information.
