Captain Rod Light was with the Yakima Police Department for 28-years before being placed on paid-leave in July after a person outside of the department filed a complaint against him.
Included in the report were divorce papers filed by Darla Light, in which she claims he threatened her life.
She alleged that when she found out Officer Light had been carrying on multiple affairs, Light said to her, "If you don't quit the one liners, there's going to be a homicide."
Darla also claimed that when she confronted him in March about the continuing affairs, he beat her, striking her multiple times on the legs with his fists while they sat on a couch.
Yakima city officials have announced however, that the allegations have been determined to be unfounded and have cleared him to return to work.
City Manager Tony O’Rourke said an investigation by the Kennewick Police Department found no credible evidence that Light attacked his now-estranged wife.
“It’s been a difficult ordeal,” Light said Tuesday at his attorney’s office. “I never once doubted what the eventual results would be."
But the woman who brought Darla Light’s allegations to the city’s attention expressed disappointment that Light was absolved of any wrongdoing.
“I’m sick to my stomach,” said Ashley Garza, a volunteer advocate for victims of domestic violence. “A lot of times, people get prosecuted without that much evidence.”
Light was placed on leave July 7 after Garza told YPD about the allegations contained in Darla Light’s divorce filings, and complained that the department was not following state-mandated policies for dealing with reports of officer-involved domestic violence.
The policy requires officers to report the allegation to their superiors for investigation.
Darla Light told investigators that in June 2013, her husband attacked her and threatened to kill her at their West Valley home. At the time, deputies were called and questioned the couple, who both denied there had been any violence.
However, when questioned as part of the Kennewick investigation in July, Darla Light said she’d been afraid to tell deputies what really happened.
“I lied,” Darla Light said, according to a transcript of that interview. “I was afraid.”
O’Rourke said investigators talked to numerous friends, family and acquaintances of Darla Light and none said that she had mentioned incidents of domestic violence to them.
“Going through the voluminous paperwork in the investigation, it didn’t provide any evidence that any incident of domestic violence occurred,” O’Rourke said. “There are no law enforcement reports, no medical evidence.”
According to the Kennewick investigation, an acquaintance of Darla Light reported that Light told her she’d been pushed around by her husband. But the acquaintance said she did not see any evidence of an assault.
O’Rourke disputed Garza’s allegation that the police department hadn’t followed state policy on domestic violence allegations against police officers.
He said Rod Light notified police Chief Dominic Rizzi after the first incident in 2013 and that the city ordered an investigation and placed Light on leave as soon as it learned of the second allegation in Vancouver.
However, those actions didn’t occur until July, two months after Darla Light had filed divorce papers containing the allegations.
City officials said they asked Kennewick police Cmdr. Craig Littrell to investigate in order to avoid any potential appearance of impropriety by having the Yakima Police Department’s internal affairs officer — a lieutenant — investigate Light, a superior officer.
O’Rourke said that in order to further reduce potential conflicts of interest, he personally reviewed the 966-page report, which was given to the city two weeks ago.
Normally, Rizzi reviews internal investigations and decides what discipline, if any, is required.
The Kennewick report states that the city met the minimum requirements of the policy, but suggested further follow-up should be pursued with all parties in any similar future incidents.
While the investigation took place, Rod Light was put on administrative leave. He was paid $39,093 in wages and received $8,812 in benefits between July 7 and Oct. 31, according to city records.
It was not the first time Light’s actions have been questioned. In 2010, he demoted to sergeant after being accused of having romantic relationships with two subordinates and improperly removing a draft copy of his evaluation from a deputy chief’s office.
He was reinstated after an arbitrator ruled there was no departmental policy against relationships between employees outside work, and that demotion was too severe a punishment for taking the evaluation and making a copy of it.
When Light returns to work, he will be moved to a new role overseeing the department’s plans to build a new police headquarters and a possible satellite station in West Valley, a move Light and a city officials said was not punishment.
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