HOBART | City officials moved up the disciplinary hearing for a suspended Hobart police officer after his attorney filed suit, City Attorney Anthony DeBonis said.
The disciplinary hearing for Officer Kirk Homoky has been moved to 2 p.m. on Dec. 13 in City Hall, 414 Main St., DeBonis said.
Homoky, 32, a six-year veteran, was relieved of his services and placed on unpaid administrative leave on Nov. 19 by Police Chief Jeff White.
White requested Homoky's termination at the Board of Public Works last month. Insubordination was the grounds, he said.
The board initially set a 9 a.m. Jan. 23 hearing for Homoky.
"Most attorneys need more time. We assumed he would be agreeable to a date in January," DeBonis said.
Homoky's attorney, Christopher Cooper, filed suit on Nov. 26 in U.S. District Court in Hammond saying his client's due process rights were violated.
The Hobart Board of Public Works was named in the suit as being in violation for not setting a disciplinary hearing within a 30-day period as prescribed by law.
In the suit filed Nov. 26, Cooper also named White, detectives Jeremy Ogden and Garrett Ciszewski and the Porter County Sheriff's Department.
The complaint claims Homoky was deprived of his 14th Amendment due process rights as a police officer when terminated by White.
The crux of the insubordination charge is that Homoky had agreed to take a voice stress test, as requested by his superiors, Cooper said, as part of an ongoing investigation.
Right before the test, Homoky questioned signing off on a permission document that stated he "voluntarily" would submit to the voice stress test when he had been ordered to do so, Cooper said.
Although Cooper said he is pleased city officials moved the hearing to Dec. 13, he's not happy with an afternoon start time.
Cooper, who suggested a morning start time, said the hearing might take two days to complete.
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