ERIE, Colo. — A former Erie police officer who was fired in July following an internal investigation has pleaded guilty to a forgery charge, according to court documents.
Joseph Watts-Johnson was accused of lying about prior military service on his police department application and during the interview process. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of forgery of a government-issued document, according to court documents, and was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and 150 hours of community service.
A charge of attempting to influence a public servant was dismissed.
Watts-Johnson was terminated from the Erie Police Department on July 13 following an internal investigation, according to a department spokeswoman.
As part of Watts-Johnson's hiring process for the department, he met with the department's chief and was asked about his military background, an arrest affidavit says. He mentioned that he served in the military and completed Ranger School as well as Airborne and Air Assault schools.
He was ultimately hired. The chief later looked at his discharge paperwork from the military, which was provided with his application. The document typically details someone's military service, but the chief noticed it did not have information about Watt-Johnson being a part of the Army Rangers, Airborne, or the Air Assault Division.
When the chief realized that she followed up Watts-Johnson to ask for that documentation. According to the affidavit, the documents provided had "editing mistakes," which made the department question their authenticity.
Watts-Johnson was placed on unpaid leave before ultimately being fired.
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