Friday, March 31, 2000
Officer sues city over sex allegations
Unproven charges led to demotion
BY MARIE McCAIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Cincinnati police officer is suing the city of Cincinnati for defamation and emotional distress after he became the subject of an internal investigation into unsubstantiated allegations of sexual improprieties with female civilians.
The lawsuit from District 2 Police Officer Andre Ewing was filed Thursday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
He is asking for reimbursement of lost overtime wages and other financial perks of the job, as well as attorney fees and any other punitive damages deemed worthy.
City officials declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Between Nov. 17, 1997, and April 5, 1999, Officer Ewing was stripped of his police powers and reassigned to the police supply room.
The suit states that his superiors took his “gun, badge, and uniform from him” after three prostitutes named him as an officer who used his position to intimidate them into having sex.
After being reassigned, Officer Ewing was eventually fired in April 1999 but rehired in August 1999 because the allegations were never proven and the city had no cause to fire him.
During his demotion, Officer Ewing contends he suffered humiliation and was held in contempt by many of his fellow officers. He was “responsible for tasks such as stocking shelves, carrying boxes and sweeping floors. (He) performed these menial tasks alongside inmates,” the lawsuit states.
In addition, according to the lawsuit, Officer Ewing was “frequently mistaken for one of the several inmates who swept floors with him.”
He contends he lost confidence in himself and others and suffered severe emotional distress as a result of the city's “wrongful termination” and defamation.
He contends that he was unfairly implicated in an internal investigation stemming from the actions of former Cincinnati Police Officers Patrick Knight and Kevin Walker.
Those two officers were convicted of using their positions to commit sexual offenses.
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