Arbitrator sides with fired San Antonio officer in dog feces case

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A San Antonio police officer fired in 2016 amid allegations he tried to give a homeless man a sandwich filled with dog feces won his appeal but hasn’t been reinstated.
An arbitrator this month sided with Matthew Luckhurst because administrators failed to assess punishment within the required 180-day period since the alleged incident. Luckhurst remains off the job while appealing another unrelated indefinite suspension.
Some officers reported the dog feces incident happened May 6, 2016, on bicycle patrol. Luckhurst on Oct. 28, 2016, was notified of indefinite suspension.
Luckhurst challenged the May date, saying he’d been hurt in a martial arts class and unable to ride a bicycle then.
Other witnesses gave varying dates.
An arbitrator decided the incident could have happened earlier and not within the 180-day punishment window.