Fired Boston Officer Wants 'Fair Hearing'

BOSTON --

A Boston police officer who was fired on Friday for sending a racially offensive e-mail says that he was railroaded out of the department without due process.

In an interview with NewsCenter 5’s Cheryl Fiandaca, Justin Barrett said that his character was assailed before he was given a chance to defend himself at a fair hearing.

"My name was smeared to the public from the very beginning," said Barrett. "I didn't get due process from the beginning. I was judged right from the beginning as someone who doesn't belong in society and I'm a cancer."

Barrett was suspended for violating department rules this summer after he sent the

to several people, including the Boston Globe and other police officers. In the message, Barrett referred to Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates as a "banana-eating jungle monkey."

Gates, a black Harvard scholar, was arrested at his home in July 2009 on a disorderly conduct charge after he tried to budge open the door of his Cambridge home.

"The Boston Police Department is committed to a standard of excellence. After a thorough investigation of this matter, it is evident that Officer Barrett's actions do not comply with that standard," Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in a statement Friday. "Given the egregious nature of his actions and its effect on our community, I strongly believe that the only appropriate discipline is termination."

Barrett, 36, was appointed to the department in June 2007. The termination comes after an internal affairs investigation and hearing and is effective immediately, officials said.

"This e-mail was unprofessional and I apologized," said Barrett. "I am sorry for the words I used. I didn't mean anything by it, but now I just haven't had anything fair done to me from the beginning of this."

Barrett's lawyer, Peter Marano, said that his client's fate was sealed long before the department launched its investigation of the e-mail, and that Barrett was terminated for political expediency rather than the content of the e-mail.

"This has been a directive from the beginning from President Obama down to mayor Menino as to what should happen to this young man," Marano said.

"If they look up my record on the city of Boston, everything I've done I've done fairly. All the arrests I've made, the citations. Everything's been done fairly and professionally," said Barrett. "I just wanted a fair hearing. At the end of the day, whoever makes the decisions after a fair hearing is what the decision is. I just wanted a fair hearing.”

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