The City of Barstow and its police department were required by an arbitrator to reinstate officer Jimmy Walker and provide him with $163,403 in back pay, it came to public light this week.
The department terminated Walker in 2013 as a delayed consequence of an August 2010 incident. Walker, then 30, was arrested by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies who responding to a disturbance call in the 11200 block of Fifth Avenue in Victorville. Walker, who is white and lived in Victorville, allegedly assaulted an African-American couple, a 32-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, prior to the deputies’ arrival. Once the deputies were on scene, Walker directed racial epithets toward the man.
Walker was subsequently charged by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office with a misdemeanor count of violating the man’s civil rights, two counts of battery and one count of disturbing the peace.
Walker originally accepted a plea bargain to fighting in public and public intoxication and was put on probation and ordered by the court to pay $150 to the court’s victim restitution fund, make a $200 donation to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and enroll and complete a Narcotics Anonymous program. Upon completion of his sentence, Walker filed a motion to have all charges against him dismissed. The motion was granted over the objection of the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
The Barstow Police Department carried out an internal investigation and he was terminated.
It was publicly revealed this week that earlier this year an administrative law judge made a finding in a binding arbitration that Walker’s off duty comportment in a jurisdiction outside of where he was employed, though troubling, did not necessitate his termination. He was given two years’ pay and is now patrolling the streets of Barstow.