Pa. appeals court upholds decision to deny promotion to Lt. Jonathan Josey

Philadelphia Police Lt. Jonathan Josey, who was denied a promotion after a woman accused him of hitting her during a parade in 2012, has lost another key legal battle.

Commonwealth Court on Monday rejected an argument from Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 that Josey had been unfairly passed over for a promotion to captain even after an arbitrator cleared him of any wrongdoing during the 2012 Puerto Rican Day Parade.

In video footage that emerged after the parade, Josey appeared to slap a woman, who then crumpled to the ground. The woman, Aida Guzman, later received $75,000 in a settlement with the city. The video made national headlines.

Josey was fired from the force a month later but won his job back in arbitration, and the incident was scrubbed from his police record. Despite his reinstatement, Josey was passed over for a promotion in 2016 due largely to repercussions from the incident.

A member of the review board that oversaw the process told Commissioner Richard Ross that the incident undermined Josey's "ability to command" and left a "detrimental long-term impact on the relationship between the department and the community it serves," according to court records.

An FOP spokesperson was not immediately available for comment Tuesday.