Lawsuit: Police watchdog investigator lost job after refusing to give false testimony

A former police misconduct investigator claims he was fired because he refused to lie about a police shooting. He is now suing the city, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Independent Police Review Authority.

The former investigator says he was fired after refusing to lie about a police officer-involved shooting to make the shooting seem unjustified.

In a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago, Kelvin Lett -- a former police misconduct investigator -- alleges Sharon Fairley demanded him to alter reports in the officer-involved shooting.

Fairley was at the time the head of the Independent Police Review Authority -- now known as the Civilian Office of Police Accountability or "COPA" -- and she had just recently made an unsuccessful bid for attorney general.

Lett says it happened two years ago when Fairley allegedly ordered him to "lie in his reports that a gun was planted on the victim by the officers involved in the shooting."

“Lett protested and refused to do so because he had no evidence to support that finding,” according to court documents.

Lett says he was demoted from investigator to janitor and an investigation was opened on him.

It involved a 2012 incident where Chicago police tased a friend of his -- Philip Coleman -- and he later died. Lett alleges Fairley fired him last year after an investigation showed he released confidential information about Coleman’s death.

An arbitrator eventually sided with Lett and he was rehired, but he says he's still not being allowed to return to work.

Lori Lightfoot is not listed as a defendant, but the now mayoral candidate was mentioned in the suit. In 2015 she was the Chicago police board president and the suit alleges she called for the "expletive" Lett to be fired.

Lett's attorney says his client was fired because he "refused to be an agent of a political agenda."

FOX 32 reached out to all parties involved for comment. A spokesperson for city's law department says they cannot comment until they see the suit.