A third Twinsburg police officer involved in a lawsuit against the city and its police chief has been fired.
Officer Matthew Pfeifer was fired at the end of July. He and two other officers filed a lawsuit in April against the city and its police chief over allegations of sexual harassment, records tampering and retaliation.
The reason the city gave for firing Pfeifer involved an incident in which he drew his weapon in the police department on Aug. 6, 2023, according to his attorney, Brian Bardwell.
"There isn't really an allegation that he's threatening anyone with it," said Bardwell, who also represents the other two officers who were fired. "It's hard to say exactly what exactly they're saying, how it actually unfolded."
However, according to a witness statement from Officer Rodney Gist recorded on Feb. 23, 2024, right before the three officers were placed on administrative leave with no explanation, Pfeifer drew his weapon and pointed it at the ceiling after some joking banter between the two of them. Gist reportedly said, "Is that a threat? Do you guys see this? That looks like a threat to me." As Pfeifer brought the weapon down, Gist stated he was in the line of fire. He interpreted the act as a show of force or intimidation, he stated.
Pfeifer appears to contest that this event even occurred, stating in an investigatory interview that he at no point removed his weapon from his holster and placed it in the high carry position while speaking with another officer, according to a pre-disciplinary letter from the city. Bardwell called the city's depiction of the incident a "gross mischaracterization."
Pfeifer was placed on administrative leave with the other two officers in March.
A pre-disciplinary letter from the city calls Pfeifer's actions "unacceptable" and "unprofessional."
“I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a fireable offense other than the chief of police and Mayor [Sam] Scaffide," Bardwell said. "For them, everything is a fireable offense if they don’t like you.”
The two other officers involved in the lawsuit were terminated in April for engaging in an inappropriate workplace relationship, which Bardwell maintains is retaliation for the lawsuit.
"There's a set of rules for people who play along with Mayor Scaffide and with the chief and then there's another set of rules for anybody who's trying to do the right thing," Bardwell said.
Since Bardwell filed the lawsuit on behalf of the three officers in April, the city has began filling their records requests, he said. Some records pertain to allegations of nepotism against Police Chief Thomas Mason in the lawsuit, including whether he removed his son's name from a police report of an underage drinking party and intervened when his wife was caught speeding.
"We've definitely confirmed that Tracy Mason was out there speeding and got a warning," Bardwell said. "Our allegation is that there was this phone call that eventually resulted in the officer getting called off by Chief Mason."
However, the records have not included body cam footage from this incident, he said.
"They're saying that no video exists, which is part like if no video exists that means that they violated their body cam, so we'll be looking to see whether they disciplined the officer for that," Bardwell said. "But we're pretty sure either that body cam does exist or she was permitted to not generate any body cam."
Bardwell has also received records pertaining to the house party on Halloween, he said.
"We continue to maintain that they've been falsified, that they've been tampered with to remove his son's name," he said.
In a statement when the lawsuit was filed, Mayor Sam Scaffide called the allegations "unsubstantiated," "inflammatory" and "untrue."
