4 officers punished in YPD
traffic stop incident
By WYTV Staff
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) –
Monday, the Youngstown Police Department announced that three officers will be
suspended and a fourth will lose pay in connection with a Nov. 28 traffic stop
in which investigators allege that officers failed to file an OVI charge
against the brother of a YPD lieutenant.
According to results of an
internal investigation obtained by WKBN, Lieutenant John Kelty will be
suspended for five days without pay and demoted to the rank of police officer
for his role in the incident.
Officer Thomas Wisener and Lt.
Gerard Slattery will be suspended for 15 and 10 days without pay, respectively,
and officer Assad Chaibi will lose his pay for four hours of accumulated time.
According to police reports,
Wisener pulled over Joseph Slattery, 54, the brother of Lt. Slattery, on the
night of Nov. 28 along Mahoning Avenue for running a traffic light.
Wisener, who made the stop,
said he found an open can of beer on the floor of the car. Slattery received
citations for failing to obey the red light and having an open container of
alcohol in his vehicle.
Documents included in the
investigation results show that Joseph Slattery had a blood-alcohol content of
0.136% when tested that night. Ohio’s legal limit is .08%.
According to the investigation,
Wisener said that he called Kelty, who told him to charge Joseph Slattery with
have an open container of alcohol and running a red light. Wisener said he
wrote a police report that was not completely true to match up with those
charges.
The investigation found
significant differences between the descriptions of the incident by Wisener and
Kelty, each saying that the other was responsible for not filing the OVI
charge. A polygraph test showed deception for Kelty’s responses when he was
asked if he told Wisener not to charge Slattery and showed no deception on the
part of Wisener when asked the same questions.
According to the investigation,
Gerard Slattery expressed his displeasure with Wisener to Kelty after receiving
a call from his brother about the possible OVI charge. Slattery also picked up
his brother’s car without paying the towing fee, a violation of the YPD code of
conduct, the report found.
Chaibi placed the test results
for the blood alcohol content testing machine in a shred bin, according to the
internal investigation report. The report also states that Kelty allowed Chaibi
to do this, along with allowing Joseph Slattery’s car to be released to his
brother and ordering the deletion of the tow report for the car.
YPD Lt. Brian Butler, who sent
the report to YPD Chief Robin Lees, made five recommendations based on the
results of the investigation:
• A camera should be installed in YPD’s BAC room
• Lt. Slattery should pay for the towing of his brother’s
car.
• Towing companies that work with YPD should get a memo from
the chief’s office stating that vehicles are only to be released after
receiving a request in writing from an authorized representative from the
police department.
• An administrating officer should keep and document all BAC
test results, whether or not charges are filed.
• Joseph Slattery should be charged with OVI.