Cop fired for parade assault gets job back

Jonathan Josey is getting back his badge.

The veteran Philadelphia police lieutenant, who was fired last fall after he was caught on video striking a woman at a Puerto Rican Day celebration, was given his job back today by an arbitrator.

6ABC reported that the arbitrator ruled that Josey will be reinstated with full benefits and back pay.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey booted Josey from the force amid a firestorm that was triggered by a short YouTube video showing Josey striking Aida Guzman, 39, from behind on Sept. 30 as she walked away from a group of police officers near 5th Street and Lehigh Avenue, moments after someone in a nearby crowd tossed uknown liquids at the cops.

Josey - who was a Daily News Sexy Single in 2006 - was charged with assault, but later acquitted at a bench trial. He contended that he had tried to knock a beer out of Guzman's hand.

"We knew, after he got acquitted, that he'd get his job back," Enrique Latoison, Guzman's attorney, said this morning.

"It's very disappointing, but it's also very scary, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "If you can get away with something like this on video, what's the limit?"

Latoison said he had not yet spoken to Guzman, who sued the city over the alleged assault and received a $75,000 settlement.

Neither Ramsey nor John McNesby, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, could be reached for comment.