By Mark LaFlamme,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A police officer fired last spring for accidentally discharging a shotgun inside a police cruiser has been returned to the force.

Officer Timothy Morrell will return to duty in April after serving out the remainder of a year’s suspension, police administrators said Friday.

Auburn Deputy Police Chief Phil Crowell confirmed Friday that Morrell was again an employee of the police department. He could not discuss details about the rehiring, and it was unclear when the decision was made.

The decision to fire Morrell was overturned, but police and city leaders were still allowed to discipline the officer. Morrell was suspended for a year, beginning at the time that he accidentally fired the shotgun.

Union President Chad Syphers was out of the country Friday night. Morrell could not be located for comment.

Morrell, a 13-year-veteran of the Auburn Police Department, was fired in May because he had accidentally discharged a mounted police shotgun in his cruiser a month earlier, according to city officials.

Nobody was hurt when Morrell fired off a round of double-ought buckshot while driving on Minot Avenue. The shotgun was mounted behind him, the trigger guarded by a safety mechanism when the shot was fired, police sources said.

Morrell never disputed the mishap.

The officer was reaching back and toying with the gun when the trigger was pulled and the shot fired, blowing out a window in the rear of the cruiser. According to police policy, there is not supposed to be a round loaded into the chamber of the shotgun if there is no emergency.

City officials said at the time that they fired Morrell because of the danger his actions posed to the community. City Manager Pat Finnigan and Police Chief Richard Small stressed that the officer’s misconduct could have injured nearby civilians.

The shotgun blast fired nine pellets of buckshot through the window of the cruiser and into the downtown area, officials said. They added that Morrell, a former school resource officer and president of the police union, had been disciplined several times for misconduct.

Almost immediately, Morrell announced that he would appeal his firing and referred to the decision as politically motivated. At the time, there was tension between City Hall and the police union as contracts were being negotiated.

“So far, I have been unlucky enough to play the role of pawn in the ongoing difficulties between the city management and its unions and employees,” Morrell stated last spring in a letter to the Sun Journal. “I can tell you that this matter is being dealt with more severely than other, prior accidental firearms discharges within the department.”

That latter comment became the crux of the union argument as it fought to get Morrell reinstated, and the case went to arbitration.

The union pointed out several past incidents in which Auburn police officers had committed misconduct. Although specific incidents were not available Friday night, police officials have referred to officers who have previously left their weapons unguarded, aimed them improperly or discharged them accidentally. One story that was bandied about among officers was an incident many years ago when a ranking officer accidentally fired his gun inside an office at the police station.

“Sadly, this is not the first time a firearm has been involuntarily discharged at the Auburn P.D.,” John Richardson, a lawyer for the Auburn police union, said when Morrell was fired. “This is the first time I know of that it ended in a termination.”

The union argued that punishments doled out in earlier incidents involving other officers were not as harsh as the firing that Morrell received. A state arbitrator assigned to hear the case agreed.