A memorandum filed by the City of Ironton contends that the Ohio Supreme Court should not reconsider its decision not to hear an appeal from a fired police officer.

The city filed its memorandum opposing Beth Rist’s motion to reconsider April 6.

The high court announced March 16 that it would not hear former Ironton Police sergeant Rist’s appeal to get her job back. Rist later filed a motion that the court reconsider its decision not to hear the matter.

The city’s response to Rist’s motion to reconsider contends that, contrary to Rist’s motion, the high court’s decision does not leave the law concerning the Arbitration Act in “confusion and uncertainty.”

“In this matter, an Ironton police officer, on her own, decided to falsify an official document,” the memorandum reads in part. “She was convicted of the falsification. Law enforcement officers are held to a higher standard of conduct. Citizens are entitled to be able to rely on their officers being held to that higher standard. There is a dominant and well-defined public policy against the enforcement of the arbitration decision in this matter. The Fourth District Court of Appeals did not err when it declined to enforce the arbitration decision as a public policy exception.”

Rist’s motion to reconsider argued that the court’s decision not to hear the matter leaves the law concerning a public policy exception to arbitration law in a state of uncertainty.

The former policewoman and current city councilwoman was fired in 2008 after admitting to writing a ticket to someone other than the actual driver of a vehicle. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to two years’ probation for falsifying a traffic ticket. Rist went off that probation on March 16.

Rist filed a grievance protesting her termination.

An arbitrator determined that she had been fired without cause and ordered that she be reinstated to her position as a police officer.

After the city appealed the arbitrator’s decision in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court, Rist’s termination was reinstated.

In October, she appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeals, which upheld her termination.

In December 2010, she appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

In a separate legal action, Rist filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Ironton and its police department in June 2010 in U.S. District Court.

In that lawsuit, the former police sergeant claimed she was fired because of her gender and in retaliation for her documented opposition to what she alleges was discriminatory treatment.

The lawsuit alleges that her termination and the city’s failure to reinstate her were motivated by a desire to discriminate against her for protesting a hostile work environment.

The case is still pending in the federal court.

In 2001, Rist, who was hired in 1996 as the department’s first female officer, filed suit against the city on grounds of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. That lawsuit was settled out of court.