LITTLE ROCK (AP) – An Arkansas police officer who was reinstated after being fired for fatally shooting a black motorist is asking a judge to hold Little Rock’s mayor and police chief in contempt, saying he has been mistreated since returning to work.Officer Charlie Starks’ attorney, Robert Newcomb, filed the motion on Wednesday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. The city’s lawyer, Michael Moore, said he knew about the motion but hadn’t reviewed it thoroughly enough to respond.
Police Chief Keith Humphrey fired Starks in May, saying he violated department policy. In February, Starks shot at Bradley Blackshire 15 times through the windshield of a car while Starks and another officer were attempting a motor vehicle stop.
In January, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox reversed the Little Rock Civil Service Commission’s ruling that upheld the firing of Starks.
Later that month, Newcomb asked Fox to hold Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and Humphrey in contempt, claiming that they had not fully complied with his order to reinstate the officer.
In his motion, Starks says the department rotates him through temporary assignments, which he says has never happened to another officer. He also says he was not given a car to take home like other officers in the department’s accreditation division until his lawyer intervened.
Starks alleges that he’s been “subject to a pattern of harassment” by Blackshire supporters at his front desk job and that his supervisor, who is a witness in the pending federal lawsuit over Blackshire’s death, is hostile towards him.
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