Crime

Fired Warren Cop Who Chopped Off Woman's Hair Weave Has Been Rehired

December 26, 2014, 9:15 AM

A Warren cop has gotten her job back, but she might want to refrain from cutting hair at police headquarters.

Norb Franz of the Macomb Daily reports that nearly a year after Warren Police officer Bernadette Najor  was fired for cutting a woman’s hair weave while restrained in a chair inside the Police Department’s lockup, she's been rehired.

She will get full back pay, fringe benefits and seniority, the paper reports.

“The arbitrator clearly indicated (the police administration) did not have just cause to terminate her and the arbitrator determined she did not violate any of the terms and conditions of the (employment) contract,” said attorney Peter Sudnick, who represented the Warren Police Officers Association and Najor in challenging the firing by Police Commissioner Jere Green, the paper reported.

The Macomb Daily reports:

The woman with the weave, Charda Gregory, was arrested by Warren police on Nov. 13, 2013, on suspicion of vandalism at the Suez Motel on Eight Mile Road. Police pepper-sprayed her after she kicked the window of a patrol car after officers took her into custody.

Later at the police station, Gregory had difficulty standing inside the jail area. Police Department video of the detention area shows Najor pushing Gregory against a wall. Officers then strapped her into a chair. Najor yanked Gregory’s head back and spent 3 minutes cutting out the weave as Gregory, 22, writhed in the chair.

The paper then reported:

“The video clearly shows she’s intoxicated. Unless I’m blind, I don’t see where she’s offering any resistance whatsoever,” the city’s top-ranking police official said at the time.

Najor had claimed that she removed the sewn-in weaves because it could be used as an instrument to harm herself or damage property in the jail, the paper reported. She also noted that the inmate had indicated that she might commit suicide. 

Najor was fired last December for use of excessive force.

The city initiated a settlement and paid the woman $75,000 and the charge of malicious destruction of property against her was dropped, according to the paper.

 


Read more:  Macomb Daily


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