More than three years after a St. Patrick’s Day incident that resulted in two officers getting suspended and one getting a demotion, a mediator has ordered the Gulfport Police Department to reinstate Rob Burkhart as a sergeant and give him back pay, which could total $50,000. She’s also ruled in favor of Officer Cory Smith, who received a suspension after the same incident.

Mediator Kitty Grubb ruled that Gulfport Police Chief Robert Vincent meted out discipline toward Officer Smith that was “retaliatory and excessive;” she also said Vincent used discipline as retaliation against Sergeant Burkhart.

Vincent, upset the officers did not make an arrest that night, in which one of two brothers retreated to the roof at their home, demoted Burkhart from sergeant to officer and suspended him without pay for 84 hours. Vincent also suspended Smith without pay for 36 hours.

Both officers challenged their reprimands via a mediation process that’s part of the collective bargaining agreement between GPD and the police union representing officers. Arbitrator Kitty Grubb oversaw the 13-hour mediation hearing in October 2020. Almost two years later, on the evening of Sept. 16, she issued a ruling. In it, she sided with the two police officers.

The officers and Fraternal Order of Police attorney Ken Afienko challenged the punishments, saying that Vincent unfairly increased them after the officers appealed the initial decision and requested mediation, according to Afienko.

“There was no ‘...

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