A jury has ruled against a District of Columbia police captain who claimed he was demoted in retaliation for contradicting the police chief.
"I’m just glad to have it over with," Chief Cathy Lanier said. "Little difficult to hear my credibility challenged that way, but at the end of the day, it’s all behind us."
The civil jury ruled Wednesday that Capt. Hilton Burton's testimony to the D.C. Council wasn't protected by whistleblower laws.
Burton filed the lawsuit after being demoted two ranks and then transferred to the fire department. He claims the decision was made because in 2011, he contradicted Lanier on how the Metropolitan Police Department handled police escorts for celebrities.
A tweet by actor Charlie Sheen sparked the investigation into authorization of the force's escorts for celebrities. Sheen tweeted about receiving a police escort with sirens and flashing lights from Dulles International Airport.
In response, the D.C. Council called a hearing at which Lanier said police escorts didn't happen often, only in instances where there is a security risk. Burton contradicted her testimony, saying such escorts happened a lot.
In closing arguments Tuesday, Burton's attorney told the jury that Lanier lied. "How can Chief Lanier protect you if she's lying to you?"
Lanier defended her leadership after the verdict.
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"I try and be fair to my employees," she said. "I’m always honest. I have no reason to lie about anything."
Lanier's attorney argued that Burton was demoted for his performance, including the way he handled three barricade situations. The attorney told jurors that Burton knew he was on shaky ground and called himself a "whistleblower" as his insurance policy.
"He was on very thin ice to begin with," the attorney told the jury, "which is probably why he gave council the testimony in the first place."
Burton emerged from the courthouse saying he respects the jury decision but still believes Lanier lied.
"At the time I testified before the city council, I truly believed that the chief had lied to all of you, to the public of the District of Columbia, and I still believe that."
"The real story here for Capt. Burton was he was demoted and he tried to use misinformation to distract everybody from that," Lanier said Wednesday.
She said that the president, vice president and heads of state get police escorts. The rest are decided on a case-by-case basis
