Pages of expert testimony obtained by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS raise more questions about how a now-former Minneapolis police officer with a controversial past was hired in the first place.

According to internal emails obtained by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS on Sunday, Officer Tyler Timberlake — whose last day at the Minneapolis Police Department was Wednesday — disclosed he was charged, and later acquitted, for assaulting an unarmed man at his former department in Fairfax County, Virginia, but Timberlake and Minneapolis Police have been silent about a separate federal civil case stemming from the same incident caught on body camera video in June 2020 in which the man he tased, struck and knelt on won a $150,000 settlement.

In expert testimony written for the defense in the civil case, former law enforcement officer and criminologist Dr. George Kirkham of Florida State University — who declined an interview for this report — wrote, “any reasonably competent police officer with basic academy training” would not have reached for their taser.

“To point to an acquittal in a criminal case, and to say that this is proof that Officer Timberlake didn’t do anything wrong, that’s just false,” said Fairfax, Virginia attorney Tom Hennessy in an interview on Monday.

Hennessy represented La Monta Gladney — the man seen in the body camera video being tased by Officer Timberlake seconds after Timberlake arrived at the scene — in the civil case.

“A $150,000 settlement was not a modest settlement in this case. It was significant,” Hennessy said in an interview on Monday. “Because I think the facts, in my opinion, were so clear that there was an obvious constitutional violation.”

In his report, Dr. Kirkham said Gladney’s behavior on June 5, 2020, did not meet any of the criteria for deploying a Taser.

Hennessy agreed, adding, “The one officer and the EMTs on the scene, none of them perceived any danger. They were interacting with Mr. Gladney in a normal relaxed fashion. And then Officer Timberlake arrives on the scene.”

Kirkham called Timberlake’s actions “blatantly excessive force” and, on the first page of the report, said his review revealed “extremely serious violations of well-established standards and procedures,” even if the facts were presented in a light “most favorable” to Timberlake.

“It is purely fortuitous that [La Monta] Gladney was not killed by Officer Timberlake.”

“We’re talking about a lot of taxpayer money here for excessive force,” Hennessy reacted. “And I would think that would be something that would be really relevant to whether he should be hired or not,” which is what happened in Minneapolis in January.

Internal emails revealed on Sunday show the now-former officer did tell the department and Chief Brian O’Hara about the criminal case, but there’s no mention of a $150,000 settlement, something Hennessy said he faxed straight to Chief O’Hara in April.

“Never got a response. But I can only assume that since I sent it directly to his attention, and I faxed it and the fax went through, that that information was available to him at that point,” Hennessy added.

“I don’t think that Officer Timberlake should be a police officer anywhere, not in Fairfax County, Virginia and not in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Timberlake, whose last day at MPD was last week, has not returned a phone call or our emails requesting comment.

MPD did not respond when asked whether Timberlake disclosed the settlement during the application process. A spokesperson only said, “Review of the department’s hiring processes is ongoing.”

O’Hara speaks out

On Monday, for the first time since the Timberlake controversy came to light, O’Hara spoke to reporters about how someone with Timberlake’s past came to be hired at MPD under his watch.

O’Hara acknowledged he had been present for Timberlake’s final interview but emphasized it was his second day on the job and that he was observing the interview “but wasn’t a participant.” He said he couldn’t recall any specifics from that interview.

The chief also said he didn’t know when he signed off on Timberlake’s hire that he was on trial for a use-of-force incident and only knew that a “critical incident” had been disclosed. He said he wasn’t aware of the video showing Timberlake’s conduct until he received a media inquiry in April.

When pressed about why he didn’t look further into Timberlake’s background, especially when the former officer had been involved in such a high-profile case, O’Hara immediately deflected to the “layers of review” that let Timberlake reach the final stage of the hiring process before he arrived at the department.

“Which is all the more reason why I was outraged when I found out about this only after a media inquiry,” O’Hara said. “You know, it’s very obvious that there’s something wrong with the process if someone can go through layers of review and something like that not being flagged.”