Columbus police fire probationary officer with ties to former officer guilty on federal charges
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A Columbus Division of Police probationary officer with ties to a former Columbus police officer who recently pleaded guilty to criminal charges, has been fired.
According to personnel records obtained by NBC4, probationary officer Amber Blackburn was terminated after reports of her alleged involvement in a bar fight surfaced earlier this week.
A request for probationary termination was received on Jan. 27 after it was reported that the night prior Blackburn got into a fight at the TownHall bar on North High Street in the Short North neighborhood, just north of Downtown, Columbus.
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The termination letter states that CPD officers working special duty at the bar were alerted by an employee that a woman needed to be removed. Two officers reported that on Jan. 26 at around 1:50 a.m. they observed Blackburn, 34, throwing punches at the head of another woman, who was attempting to walk away from the altercation.
The officers said they asked the victim if she “was good” and the woman replied, “I just got mauled by a girl, but I’m good”. The officers reportedly approached Blackburn, who they said was behaving erratically while being restrained by another man. The officers asked both to leave the bar, but they allegedly refused. Attempts to remove them physically were met with resistance, the report said.
Amber Blackburn (Courtesy/Columbus Division of Police)
One of the special duty officers interviewed Blackburn and reported that Blackburn said the other woman spit in her face and that she “beat that (expletive’s) ass”. The officer reported that Blackburn appeared highly intoxicated and was acting belligerent and dismissive towards him. Blackburn then reportedly left the bar without further incident.
While the report states that the officers were not wearing their CPD issued body cameras due to low batteries, video surveillance from the TownHall bar reportedly showed Blackburn assaulting three separate people. Two of the assaults, police say, occurred while officers were attempting to restrain and remove her from the bar.
Blackburn’s personnel records indicate she was hired in August 2023 as a probationary police officer, or a new police officer who is in training and being evaluated before becoming a full-time police officer. Her probationary period was through March 2025.
Fraternal Order of Police president Brian Steel told NBC4 that disciplinary action against probationary officers can be terminated for just cause without a review process. Steel said if she wants to file a grievance, they will fulfil their legal duty, but not through arbitration.
“When they found out that she was an officer, one of their own, they immediately reported that to the supervisor,” Steel said. “So sometimes this false notion that we cover up the officer’s actions. That’s simply not the truth. These officers were put in a bad situation.”
In a statement CPD Sgt. James Fuqua said, “Probationary Officer Blackburn’s employment was terminated during her probationary status as a result of her involvement in an off-duty incident. The Columbus Division of Police holds our officers to the highest standards and anyone who violates their oath will be held accountable.”
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Personnel records also state that Blackburn was hired under the name Amber Duty before changing her last name to Blackburn. Steel and Fuqua confirmed that Blackburn was married to former officer Nicholas Duty, who just last week pleaded guilty to falsifying records in connection with multiple sexual encounters with women in 2023 and 2024.
Documents confirm that Blackburn changed her name in April 2024, days after Duty’s arrest, and Steel said that Blackburn and Duty were no longer together when Nicholas Duty was indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2024.
No charges have been filed against Blackburn for last weekend’s incident.
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