GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Grand Rapids is hoping a federal judge will speed up the process of firing three officers implicated in the case of a former assistant prosecutor’s wrong-way crash in November.

The city filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday, Feb. 3, asking a judge to settle a dispute between the city and its police unions.

The disagreement regards five phone calls between the officers — made on a recorded line they believed was not being recorded — on the night of the crash, according to the lawsuit. The city disputes the union’s claims that the calls cannot be used as evidence against the officers in the ongoing internal discipline process.

“I don’t like this hanging out in the community,” City Manager Greg Sundstrom said. “People in the media are having a heyday. I don’t like it hanging over the department’s head, and I don’t like it hanging over the officers’ heads.”

The three Grand Rapids Police officers — Sgt. Thomas Warwick, Lt. Matthew Janiskee and Officer Adam Ickes — won’t be charged with a crime.

However, Sundstrom believes the five accidentally recorded phone calls are not needed to fire the officers.

“We believe that there’s sufficient evidence whether we have the recordings or not,” Sundstrom said.

Former Assistant Kent County Prosecutor Josh Kuiper drove the wrong way on a one-way street and hit a car during the early morning hours of Nov. 19, 2016, injuring a man. Police put Kuiper through dexterity tests but did not administer a preliminary breath test.

Ickes called from the scene that night to report to his watch commander, Janiskee, that Kuiper was “hammered,” according to the court filings. Janiskee told Ickes to call back on a line that was presumed to be unrecorded, the lawsuit states.

Warwick and Janiskee were both inside the police station when Ickes called, but Warwick headed to the scene of the crash and later drove Kuiper home, according to the court filings.

There were a total of five phone calls made on that supposedly unrecorded line – three from Ickes to Janiskee, and two from Warwick to Janiskee. Those calls were later found to have been accidentally recorded, according to the lawsuit.

“Every single phone in the city – landline and cell phone – we know when the phone is used, how long the phone call is and either to where you’re calling out or the number of the person calling in,” Sundstrom said, noting that, in the police department, most conversations are recorded.

The city’s two police unions filed the same grievance with the city, claiming that the five phone calls should not be available for use in disciplining the officers.

The grievance also requests that the five phone recordings be destroyed, said Ken Deering, the city’s labor relations manager.

The recordings have already been listened to by internal affairs staff at the police department, the police chief, the state police, the Kalamazoo County prosecutor, Sundstrom and Deering.

Those five phone calls also could be subject to a Freedom of Information Act request the city has received for internal investigation files, according to court documents.

The unions filed the grievances directly at the arbitration level.

One of the approved arbitrators agreed to in the unions’ contracts will be scheduled to hear the dispute in June, Deering said.

Arbitrators – typically professors or attorneys from the University of Michigan or Michigan State University – conduct an informal hearing and act as judge over the contract, Deering said. He said it would take about a month for them to come up with a decision.

The desire to quickly resolve the case prompted the city to take the case to the federal court this week.

Sundstrom told the City Commission that a judge’s ruling on the request could come as quickly as two days, or take long as four weeks.

“It’s not a common move for the city to take a union to court over evidence in a disciplinary case,” Sundstrom said.

City Commissioners have been kept apprised of the situation, but know few details, he said.

For now, the three officers are still city employees, suspended without pay.

Discharge hearings will be held in about a month. If they waive their right to that hearing, the officers would be fired – but could still file grievances, and potentially regain their jobs.

If they attend the hearing, and the deputy city manager decides that they still will be discharged, the officers would be fired – but could also still can file a grievance, and potentially regain their job.