Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr closed her investigation into charges that Aaron Woolverton, one of her assistant chiefs, lied under oath about a 2004 collision in which he ran over a child. On Tuesday (Oct. 17), she issued a memo saying that “the evidence does not support a finding that Chief Woolverton violated Department policy or the law.” Woolverton, who’d been on leave throughout the investigation, has since returned to active duty.

The accusation stemmed from a July complaint filed by Austin Firefighters Association President Bob Nicks, who wished to make the point that, in his view, Emergency Services District 4 firefighter Drew Garcia was unjustly barred from joining AFD due to accusations that he lied about an altercation he reportedly had as a trainee. (“He Checked the Wrong Box,” July 14.) But Woolverton explained Wednesday that the two cases are dissimilar; Garcia was given multiple chances to come clean, while Woolverton (testifying before the Civil Service Commission) had merely interpreted a question about his past driving record to mean any incident for which he had been previously investigated and “held accountable” by AFD. (Garcia disputes Woolverton’s account, framing his own issue as a paperwork error he fixed upon being notified by a superior.)

Woolverton said he noted other incidents for which he had been dinged, but not the accident in question – which occurred more than a decade ago at the Cactus Rose Mobile Home Park when a child crawled around his vehicle and out of sight. “That’s what the investigation revealed: that the allegation of perjury was completely unfounded and baseless, and I was cleared in every way,” he said. “There was no evidence that I did what [Nicks] alleged.”

Nicks said union members were “disappointed but not surprised” by Kerr’s ruling. “This is just further proof to the firefighters that Chief Kerr has a different standard” when making judgments about command staff and other firefighters within the department.

Woolverton Cleared at AFD

A version of this article appeared in print on Oct 20, 2017 with the headline: Woolverton Cleared at AFD

This article appears in October 20 • 2017.

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