Former Denver Sheriff Department Chief Frank Gale has lost his appeal to be reinstated.
Career Service hearing officer Bruce Plotkin issued his decision Monday afternoon, saying Gale intentionally covered up his actions by blaming other officers.
“In doing so, Gale escalated a relatively harmless and correctable erroneous release into an unnecessary and far-ranging investigation which could easily have cost livelihoods and careers of innocent colleagues,” Plotkin wrote in his decision to uphold Gale’s termination.
Don Sisson, Gale’s attorney, said they will appeal the decision to the full Career Service Authority board.
Gale was fired in January for giving preferential treatment to a sheriff’s captain who had been arrested and then lying about it during an investigation.
The captain was allowed to wear civilian clothes to her bond hearing and leave through the front door of the courtroom afterward. Both are violations of policy.
Two other deputies were waiting with a department vehicle to drive the captain home, but other jail officials called and asked them to bring her to the Downtown Detention Center to finish the proper paperwork.
During his appeal’s hearing, Gale said an internal affairs sergeant was in charge of the captain’s case and it was not his decision to allow those things to happen.
He also said he had been fired in retaliation for his high-ranking position with the Fraternal Order of Police.
During the hearing, Gale aired a secretly recorded phone call between himself and then-Sheriff Elias Diggins about his firing.
Twice, Gale has been fired and gotten his job back after appeals.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or @Noelle_Phillips
