Cleared from criminal investigation BY THE STATE - not by the feds. The Rudolph shooting occurred in May 1999, the award ceremony was less than a year later, March, 2000, plenty of time for the feds to look at the situation, given the whole history of what had been happening around that time. Also plenty of time to be a factor in the lawsuit. Bottom line, he was fired for forgetting that he was the chief, and answerable directly to the mayor, and you do not hold back such information from your boss.