Former Philly police commander to be reinstated nearly year after criminal case against him fell apart

Carl Holmes, a former high-ranking commander in the Philadelphia Police Department, has won an arbitration case to be reinstated nearly a year after a criminal case against him fell apart.

Holmes was fired in 2019 after he was charged with sexually assaulting three women at work. The criminal case involving two of the women had already been withdrawn when the final accuser failed to show up to court last January.

“I can confirm that Mr. Holmes is being reinstated following an arbitration hearing between the City of Philadelphia and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #5,” Sgt. Eric Gripp, spokesperson for the police department, said in an email.

“The arbitrator ruled in favor of Lodge #5′s position, meaning Mr. Holmes will be reinstated to the department, and will return to his previous rank of Chief Inspector,” Gripp said. The reinstatement process is “still underway,” Gripp said, adding that he could not say when Holmes would return to the department.

Roosevelt Poplar, president of the FOP, the union for city police officers, said in a statement Friday: “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 re-instatement.”

Holmes could not be reached Friday for comment. The city did not immediately respond to a request Friday asking for details of the arbitration decision. The arbitration process has helped overturn sanctions for dozens of officers over the years.

» READ MORE: Fired, then rehired

Last January, a prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office told a judge that the remaining accuser in the criminal case could not be reached, despite attempts to contact her by phone, by letters, or having detectives attempt to hand-deliver subpoenas. Prosecutors obtained a bench warrant, but she still failed to appear.

The lawyer for Holmes tried to convince the judge to force prosecutors to put on a trial without the woman in order to secure a not-guilty verdict. The judge declined, but expressed doubt that the case against Holmes would ever move forward.

» READ MORE: Former Philly cop Carl Holmes’ sexual-assault case has been tossed out of court

Holmes spent nearly three decades on the force and was also a lawyer. During his career, however, he had been publicly accused of sexually assaulting women he worked with — allegations detailed extensively by The Inquirer and the Daily News.

In 2017, the city paid $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit by a woman who said that Holmes sexually assaulted her when she was an officer in the department.