OKC police officer fired after investigation

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY --A nine-year veteran of the Oklahoma City police department was fired Tuesday for actions taken on and off the job.

Sergeant John Blumenthal has been on administrative leave for months. He pled guilty to assaulting a suspect and using profane language during an arrest in July of last year.

Blumenthal faced 12 allegations, and after an investigation, seven turned out to be true. The chief of police said it was seven too many.  

When Sergeant Blumenthal went to court on charges that he allegedly assaulted a suspect and used profane language during an arrest, police hoped it would be the end of his troubles

"It was during the assault and battery case that we gained information to a prior incident in March of '07," said Capt. Steve McCool of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

It was in that incident in March of 2007 that the department review board discovered Blumenthal lied in a police affidavit and a police report involving a drug arrest.

According to his termination letter, when Blumenthal was first put on administrative leave, he left the country to go work for a private company, something the report said he was told not do while on leave.

It wasn't until the review board determined all seven allegations to be true that Police Chief Bill Citty decided to fire Blumenthal.  In the termination letter Citty said, "Your actions demonstrate a lack of integrity, trust and honesty."

"We take all allegations seriously. We do not take lightly the trust we gained with this community through many many years," Capt. McCool said.