The city of Riverside is trying to fire three of its police officers because they use the license plates of disabled veterans on their vehicles even though they have no problems doing their jobs, a police attorney said.
The department’s idea for firing these officers, their lawyer Matthew McNicholas said they must have lied to the California Department of Motor Vehicles to get special plates, which exempt drivers from paying registration fees and allow them to use disabled parking spaces and park in metered spaces for free.
That logic is broken, McNicholas said, because under federal law, to get a 100% disability rating — which every officer has received — a veteran doesn’t have to be fully disabled. A veteran can get that disability status with a combination of partial disabilities, such as hearing loss, post-traumatic stress disorder or a back injury. In order to receive plates for veterans rated as 100% disabled, an individual must submit a certificate from a medical professional or state, county or federal veterans’ agency certifying their disability.
“The department said it’s bad” that the police come to work with their vehicles carrying the plates of veterans living with 100% disability, said McNicholas in an interview on Tuesday.
The Riverside Police Department declined to comment on the matter or the status of officers at the agency, citing employee confidentiality. But McNicholas said the department is acting out of concern for public perception and will punish officers for refusing to remove the plates when asked by their superiors.
Officers Timothy Popplewell, Richard Cranford and Raymond Olivares were placed on administrative leave and notified of an internal investigation into their use of veterans’ plates on May 21. They sued the agency nearly two months later, saying in a complaint filed July 17 in Riverside County Superior Court that it discriminated against and harassed them based on their professional status and disability. On Feb. 24, the Riverside City Council met in closed session to discuss whether to settle the case and voted against it, said Saku Ethir, Riverside Police Officers Assn. a lawyer representing the police. The day after that vote, officials received notices of revocation, Ethir said.
The city moved to fire the officers because despite having special veterans plates from their war injuries, they “appeared to be working” and were “totally eligible and satisfactory,” McNicholas said in a video posted on Instagram March 2. All three had been asked by their supervisors to change the plates on their vehicles but refused, McNicholas said. A fourth officer with veterans plates agreed to remove them and has not yet been arraigned, he said.
Through a spokesperson, the Riverside Police Department declined to answer questions about the officers, “due to the confidentiality of the personnel action that has not yet completed its process.”
In an October 16 response to the police lawsuit, the department said it “acted in good faith in the reasonable belief that its actions were lawful and did not directly or indirectly take any action that would constitute a breach of any duty owed to the Plaintiffs.”
Popplewell, Cranford and Olivares will still have the opportunity to challenge the department’s dismissal, Ethir said. They have already been given the documents that the department relied on in its decision to expel them, but the hearing of the request for their withdrawal has not yet been scheduled, he said. Ethir said he believes that the Department has not provided all the records it is legally obligated to provide to these officials.
Popplewell served in the military from 2008 to 2011 and was deployed to Iraq, McNicholas said. Olivares was in the Marines from 2013 to 2019 and was deployed to the Middle East and Africa. Cranford served in the Army from 2010 to 2014 and was deployed to Iraq. All three joined the Riverside Police Department in 2019, according to the lawsuit.
