Carl Holmes, whose sex assault charges were dropped, is entitled to lost wages, along with his police inspector’s job

Former Chief Inspector Carl Holmes is entitled to some back pay from when he was off the police force as a result of being charged with sexually assaulting three officers, according to a newly released arbitration decision.

Holmes is in the process of being reinstated to the Philadelphia Police Department after the October 2019 criminal case against him collapsed last September and an arbitrator granted a union grievance filed by the Fraternal Order of Police.

In a decision made public Tuesday, arbitrator David J. Reilly found that the city, in trying to uphold his firing, had relied “exclusively on the indictment” to substantiate the disciplinary charges of conduct unbecoming an officer that led to Holmes’ termination.

“Doing so, I conclude, proves fatal to its case,” Reilly wrote in the Dec. 1, 2023, decision.

Reilly ordered Holmes to be reinstated and said the city must “make him whole for all wages and benefits lost as a consequence of his discharge, including overtime” — but excluding the period during which the felony charges were pending, and minus any outside earnings.

City officials did not immediately respond to questions about how much back pay Holmes could be owed. The FOP had argued unsuccessfully that the chief inspector, who was earning $143,869 in 2019, should be awarded full back pay going back to the date of his termination.

» READ MORE: Fired, then rehired: Police arbitration system overturned the firings or discipline of more than 100 cops

Holmes, 58, was charged by an investigating grand jury with sexually assaulting three subordinates. The presentment alleged that the longtime officer had fondled women’s’ breasts and digitally penetrating their vaginas against their will. He denied the charges.

Over the next four years, and through the COVID-19 pandemic, the criminal case slowly unraveled. One accuser had moved to Florida and couldn’t be reached. Another also failed to appear. The charges involving the third woman were withdrawn, and Holmes’ lawyer had questioned her credibility.

“In weighing this consideration, I take note that Holmes has never had an opportunity, in any forum, to hear and challenge the direct evidence supporting the allegations underlying the indictment,” wrote Reilly, the arbitrator. “A criminal trial was never held. Rather, as the parties stipulated, the District Attorney ultimately withdrew or dismissed all of the charges.”

» READ MORE: Carl Holmes’ alleged sexual misdeeds were well known by Philadelphia police and city officials, but a flawed system shielded him for 15 years.

Christa Hayburn, one of the women who had accused Holmes of assault, said on Tuesday that she was not asked to testify at the arbitration hearing.

”My reaction to this reinstatement is it’s a disgrace,” said Hayburn. She alleged that Holmes in 2006 had asked her to join a task force of plainclothes officers assigned to high-crime areas, then sexually assaulted her in his city-issued Dodge Durango.

Hayburn testified against Holmes at his March 2020 preliminary hearing. ”I had told him I had to leave, my husband was waiting for me,” Hayburn said on the stand, occasionally breaking down in tears. “I kept telling him he was my boss, this wasn’t right.”

The District Attorney’s withdrew that case in March 2021. Holmes’ attorney, Gregory Pagano, had questioned Hayburn’s credibility, but wouldn’t elaborate. He had argued that his client is innocent and had been the victim of what he likened to “a witch hunt.”

Roosevelt Poplar, president of the Philadelphia FOP, said in a statement earlier this month: “As part of this officer’s due process rights, his case was presented to an arbitrator where the City of Philadelphia and the Fraternal Order of Police presented their respective cases. The arbitrator ruled in favor of the officer’s reinstatement.”

An Inquirer analysis of police arbitration rulings found that between 2011 and 2019, the FOP had successfully fought to have police discipline overturned or reduced about 70% of the time.

Reilly handled 16 cases over that period, siding with the FOP about half of the time.

He was also the arbitrator in another high-profile police case more than a decade ago. He ruled in 2013 that Lt. Jonathan Josey be reinstated after he was caught on camera striking a woman in the face during the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Reilly wrote that the contact with the woman’s face was “glancing in nature.”