AURORA, Colo. — The hearing has been delayed for an Aurora officer who is appealing his firing over his response to photos taken at the Elijah McClain memorial.
Former officer Jason Rosenblatt was slated to appear in front of the Aurora Civil Service Commission on Dec. 9 – 10, but that has been pushed back to Jan. 21 and 22, according to Michael Bryant, a spokesperson for the city of Aurora.
The other officers fired over the incident, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich, are scheduled to appear in front of the commission Feb. 1-2, Bryant said. This was pushed back from their initial date of Dec. 14-15.
The hearings for all three officers will be closed per their requests, Bryant said.
RELATED: Officers fired over photos near Elijah McClain memorial will make case for reinstatement next month
Rosenblatt, Dietrich and Marrero were fired earlier this year in wake of a photo taken on Oct. 20, 2019 in the 1700 block of Billings Street – near a memorial honoring McClain, who had a fatal confrontation with police in the area.
Marrero and Dittrich posed in a photo with a third officer where one of them appeared to be doing a carotid hold. The third officer seen in the photo resigned before he could be disciplined.
The image was sent to Rosenblatt, who was one of the three officers who responded the night that led to McClain’s death. Rosenblatt responded to the photo of his colleagues at the memorial with “ha ha,” Aurora Police said.
Rosenblatt, Dietrich and Marrero have all since sued the city over the terminations.
McClain died on Aug. 27, 2019 – five days after he went into cardiac arrest following a confrontation with Aurora officers. He was detained after a report of a “suspicious person” in the area. McClain’s family said he had been walking to the store to get iced tea, and was wearing a ski mask because he was anemic.
Officers used a carotid hold on McClain and first responders later gave him ketamine, a sedative. He went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. A coroner’s report found his cause of death inconclusive, and the 17th District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against the officers involved.
While prosecutors declined to file charges against any of the officers involved in McClain’s death, including Rosenblatt, the Colorado attorney general has now been appointed as a special prosecutor, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice (DOJ) are eying a federal civil rights investigation.
>>> The video above is from a previous 9NEWS story about the Aurora Police Department's denial of any wrongdoing in the Elijah McClain case.
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