Aurora’s Civil Service Commission has upheld the firings of three APD officers for their roles in a photo mocking the death of Elijah McClain.

Two officers were in the photo and a third – who was on scene of McClain’s encounter with officers that ultimately led to his death – received one of the photos in a text message and responded, “Ha ha.”

McClain died in 2019 after several days in a coma, following an encounter with officers who placed him in a carotid chokehold, and paramedics called to the scene injected him with the powerful sedative ketamine. 

The photo shows former officers Erica Marrero, Kyle Dittrich and Jaron Jones in front of a memorial at the scene of McClain’s death, reenacting a chokehold like the one officers used on McClain. Jones resigned, and Jason Rosenblatt, Marrero and Dittrich were fired last July. Rosenblatt was not present when the photo was taken but received it in a text message.

The commission heard Rosenblatt’s appeal on Jan. 21 and 22 in a closed session, and appeals by Marrero and Dittrich on Feb. 1 and 2. The commission issued its findings Tuesday.

“I fully supported Chief Wilson’s firing of Officers Dittrich, Marrero and Rosenblatt, and am encouraged that the Civil Service Commission agreed and upheld her decision,” said City Manager Jim Twombly in a statement.

“Aurora police officers are expected to serve our community with dignity, respect and a sense of humanity,” said Police Chief Vanessa Wilson in a statement. “I want to thank City Manager Twombly for his faith in me and my decisions. We are aligned in our commitment to providing our community the police department they deserve. This supportive decision of the Civil Service Commission enables us to take another step forward on our path to a new way in rebuilding trust with our community through transparency and accountability.”

Marrero and Dittrich claimed they took the photos to send a message of support to Officer Nathan Woodyard, who was one of the officers at the scene of the encounter with McClain and was placed on administrative leave following McClain’s death. The commission did not accept this explanation, according to the findings, saying that Woodyard’s response to the photo of “Hey dude, that’s not cool,” was telling.

“Like so many who saw the photo, within the Aurora Police Department and the community at large, Officer Woodyard did not find any humor in seeing a photo of a simulated choke hold at the site where the Elijah McClain tragedy occurred,” state the commission’s findings. “There were numerous other methods Officers Marrero and Dittrich could have used or photos they could have sent to offer support for Officer Woodyard. The Commission simply does not understand how a photo depicting a choke hold at the Elijah McClain memorial could possibly be expected to help Officer Woodyard.”

The Civil Service Commission also was not persuaded by Marrero and Dittrich’s arguments that their actions did not warrant firing based on analogies to other incidents of misconduct by APD officers who were not fired as a result. The findings said that while some of those cases involved horrific statements, the disciplinary decisions were made by police chiefs preceding Wilson and she has stated that some of those cases would have resulted in firing if the decisions had been hers to make.

The findings state Rosenblatt claimed the text message came from a number not in his contacts and he did not know who had sent it. He claimed he did not know what to do when he received the photo and said that when he responded with “Ha ha,” he was trying to be polite but not engage the sender.

In its decision about Rosenblatt’s appeal, the commission did not find his explanation for his response of “Ha ha” credible, state the findings. 

“The Commission does not believe that the response of ‘Ha ha’ can reasonably be interpreted as an effort to discourage, rather than encourage further discussion or communication,” states the letter. “On the contrary, the Commission concludes that when Officer Rosenblatt sent his ‘Ha ha’ response, there was a very substantial risk that it would go to persons unknown to Officer Rosenblatt, possibly including members of the public, and that the nature of the response, particularly if disclosed to the public, would be viewed as a callous disregard for the tragic loss of Elijah McClain’s life.”

Aurora PD’s lobby is closed until further notice as a former officer appeals firing