This retired officer sounds like he was off the hook, but the fact that his son’s personnel record is mentioned is not right at all. It doesn’t matter that his son’s record is a very positive one; there is something wrong with the son’s record even being mentioned since he was not involved in this incident.
I’m pretty sure most of us have unstable family members, and we shouldn’t have to justify our own existence and legitimacy by presenting our files as evidence of innocence for others’ sins.
Mentioning his son’s record is the beginning of making the retired cop into the victim and the victim the aggressor.