Nearly five dozen police officers charged with wrongdoing have escaped discipline because department brass blew legally mandated deadlines for meting out punishment, internal police documents show.

Since fiscal 2007, 58 police officers who were accused of  misconduct got off because their superiors didn’t move on the case within 90 days, according to a July police personnel report obtained by The Examiner.

The report does not specify what accusations the officers were facing, but it does say that at least 36 officers in the department were brought up on charges that their “conduct constitutes a crime” in the last two years.

Chief Cathy Lanier was embarrassed earlier this year when nearly two dozen officers fired for a variety of charges of misconduct had to be rehired because the department violated their rights to quick hearings.

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Lanier and D.C.’s acting Attorney General Peter Nickles swiftly terminated the rehired officers.

But those officers are now suing the city and the department for tens of millions of dollars, alleging that the department reneged on negotiated agreements to rehire them.

D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large and chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary, said he was mystified by the personnel report’s findings.

“I thought we’d put an end to these violations. That they would be no more,” Mendelson said. “The rehiring of the officers a month or two ago was an embarrassment to the government. And it’s a serious concern that an officer does something to warrant discipline and then the department screws up the discipline on a technicality.”

Neither Nickles nor Lanier responded to questions for comment.

Almost 750 officers have been disciplined in the last two years, the report shows. The majority of officers in the department found themselves being cited for “failure to obey orders” and “neglect of duty,” according to the personnel report.

Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. police union, said that the personnel report’s findings may actually be worse than they seem. The law requires the city to investigate a claim and bring charges within 90 business days. The union contract then gives the city 55 business days to impose the discipline after a hearing.

“It’s not like they have just two months to get this stuff done. They have forever,” Baumann said. “It again raises just a host of questions about what is wrong with police management.”

Got a tip on the D.C. police department? Call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send an e-mail to bmyers@dcexaminer.com.