Lawyers for the Cleveland police recruits accused of cheating during training have filed a temporary restraining order against the city.
The 15 recruits caught up in an internal investigation into whether they committed plagiarism during training were barred from taking the state certification test this week.
Lawyers for the recruits say they should be allowed to take the exam Thursday. The investigation can pick back up afterwards.
"Let's not meet out punishment on the front end before they have an opportunity to contest the allegations and even understand what the allegations are," says attorney Eric Henry.
The investigation stems from irregularities in notebooks that recruits are required to keep. During the review process, some of the instructors noticed possible plagiarism.
"We feel as though it's way too early in the investigation to start handing out discipline, threatening termination, not allowing these individuals to sit for what's a really important exam," attorney Sean Sobel adds.
The attorneys also said barring the recruits from the exam could permanently ruin their chances of becoming police officers in the future.