Sometime near dawn on the Fourth of July last year, Assistant Cincinnati Police Chief Ron Twitty got his sleeve stuck in the moving gears of the law.

The whole city gathered to watch.

Twitty claimed he was nowhere near the machinery. Many black people believed him and said the law machine was racist.

Many whites said Twitty was lying and deserved what he got as the gears slowly dragged him in and mangled his reputation as a Cincinnati cop for nearly 30 years.

Now the report is finally out. It's more than a half-foot tall, thicker than some murder investigations. There are pictures and diagrams and interviews with dozens of witnesses by 13 detectives.

No stone unturned

There are microscopic blow-ups of pebbles embedded in the bumper of the city-owned Ford he was driving that night.

It's tempting to ask, "Who cares?'' He quit the police department and paid a $1 fine to avoid prosecution for covering up an accident. He drew a fat pension and moved on. Why don't we all?

Because truth matters.

Twitty claimed he got home about 1 a.m. and discovered the next morning his car had been hit during the night as it was parked in front of his home. When confronted, he blamed a grudge by one of the cops who investigated.

It's all fertilizer. Witnesses said he was out drinking as late as 5 a.m. All four cops who investigated Twitty's report of a "hit-skip'' were immediately suspicious, and doubts snowballed up the chain of command.

Even body shop workers said the Ford was not hit sitting at a curb.

There was no debris or paint from another car. And the car was lined up as if parked by a driving instructor.

The private report trumpeted by Twitty's lawyer was in fact inconclusive, by someone who was never at the scene.

The system worked. The cops were uneasy about investigating their boss. But they did the right thing.

Investigators repeatedly offered graceful exits to Twitty, to avoid blowing the case out of proportion. He refused and stuck to a bogus story that divided the city.

Facts are stubborn

The report shows a cop who had many commendations - but many were for ribbon cuttings or ceremonial functions.

It shows an assistant chief who didn't pay his taxes and had other personal issues.

It shows a cop who was promoted rapidly to the top despite a job review that states he needs to work on his administrative skills and has less education than other assistant chiefs.

It shows a cop who damaged his city car twice before, but no reports were filed and he was not held accountable.

Police Chief Tom Streicher had to suspend Twitty. Rumors were running wild. Cops were watching closely to see if he would get a free pass because he was black and a boss. Streicher told investigators he could not allow beat cops to think there was a "cover-up'' for Twitty. He was right.

Sometime near dawn on the Fourth of July, Twitty hit something made of concrete, then went home and tried to cover it up.

His friends can blame the cold and relentless machine called the law. But real friends would have told him long ago he was standing dangerously close.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.