The District of Columbia agreed to reinstate the lead firefighter who was dismissed last month over the emergency response to the fatal beating death of David Rosenbaum, a retired New York Times journalist.
The District struck a deal Wednesday following a judge’s ruling last week that temporarily blocked the dismissal because the judge said the D.C. fire chief couldn’t increase the amount of punishment recommended by a trial board. The board had recommended a suspension.
The District and the D.C. Firefighters Association will negotiate a punishment, said Dan Dugan, head of the D.C. Firefighters Association.
“We’re just happy to get this out of the courts,” Dugan said.
The firefighter has not been identified. He and another suspended firefighter are retraining at the academy, Dugan said.
A four-member review panel last month recommended that the lead firefighter be suspended for six weeks and the second emergency official for two weeks. But new D.C. fire Chief Dennis Rubin fired the lead firefighter and doubled the suspension for the other firefighter.
The trial board acquitted three other responders in the Rosenbaum case. Rosenbaum, 63, was beaten with a pipe during a mugging near his home in January 2006.
Emergency workers initially believed he was drunk and didn’t try to determine if he was hurt, a city report found. An ambulance driver bypassed the closest hospital and took him to Howard University Hospital, nearly two miles out of the way.
The Rosenbaum family withdrew a $20 million lawsuit against the city in March after receiving assurances from new Mayor Adrian Fenty that the District’s emergency services will be overhauled.
