Judge yanks fired cop’s certification at sentencing



By Mary Beth Lane

A former Nelsonville police officer has been sentenced to a 30-day, suspended jail term and ordered to permanently surrender his peace-officer certification after he admitted roughing up a teenager he had taken into custody.
Athens County Common Pleas Judge L. Alan Goldsberry sentenced Randy Secoy, 42, of Amesville, on Friday, county Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said.
Secoy pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of persistent disorderly conduct. He initially was charged with abduction and assault.
Secoy, who was fired from the Nelsonville Police Department after the incident, took a 15-year-old boy into custody on March 6 after a fight at a pizza restaurant. At the police station, Secoy was caught on surveillance tape grabbing the boy underneath his chin and shoving him against a wall. No charges were filed against the boy, Blackburn said.
“He was unfit to be a police officer,” Blackburn said of Secoy. “The best interest of the state was to ensure that he no longer was a police officer.”