Although he was acquitted of criminal charges in the alleged assault on homeless people last year, a former Seattle firefighter will not get his job back after an arbitrator determined he instigated the attack and then lied to police about it. The ruling by labor-management arbitrator and mediator Howell L. Lankford upholds the city’s firing of Bob Howell, one of two former firefighters who made headlines in March 2014 when they were accused of attacking a group of homeless people in Occidental Park.Howell and the Seattle Fire Department declined to comment Thursday. The firefighters union did not return calls. Lankford’s ruling was recently released by the city in response to a public-disclosure request by The Seattle Times. Howell, former firefighter Scott Bullene and Bullene’s girlfriend Mia Jarvinen were arrested on March 14, 2014, and charged in Seattle Municipal Court with assault and malicious harassment for allegedly attacking a group of homeless people at the park.