Three experienced Columbus police officers have pleaded guilty and have resigned.
William R. McCague, 55, Robert A. Thissen, 52, and Joseph A. Townsend, 51, pleaded a single indictment in Franklin County Town Court Thursday morning in a plea deal that included an agreement in the To retire.
Judge James E. Green accepted the pleadings and fined each defendant $ 88 to cover court costs. Joseph Gibson, chief prosecutor for the Columbus City District Attorney, did not ask for any fines as part of the pleadings.
Gibson said prosecutors would have agreed not to bring the cases to a Franklin County grand jury – where more serious charges could have resulted – if the officers stepped down and pleaded guilty to counting the individual offense. As a result, jail time and parole were not involved.
Each defendant appeared separately in front of the judge Thursday morning with defense attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stevens for brief hearings at which their confessions of guilt were filed but none of them spoke.
Affidavits filed with the court early Thursday morning allege an internal Columbus police investigation in 2020 found hours of misrepresentation or “double immersion” over several months.
Glenn McEntyre, a spokesman for the Department of Public Security, said 17 other officials are currently under “active administrative investigation”. As a result of the investigation, stricter monitoring elements and random checks had been introduced. No similar cases of time abuse or double-dipping have been reported since these measures were in place, he said.
The settlement agreement includes relatively modest, negotiated compensation payments of $ 1,340.40 for Thissen and $ 737.22 for Townsend. According to Gibson, McCague doesn’t have to issue a refund.
McCague and Townsend also agreed to abandon their Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy certification, meaning they cannot seek employment with any other law enforcement agency in the state. Thissen is allowed to keep his certificate.
That’s because, unlike McCague and Townsend, Thissen never gave the city false information about his whereabouts while on duty, Gibson said.
He said McCague’s refund was owed to a private employer who had not requested a refund.
McCague and Townsend have been members of the Columbus Division of Police for 27 years and Thissen for 29 years.
The city’s Department of Public Safety said Townsend and McCague retired in poor standing on August 3 and Wednesday, respectively. Thissen retired on July 13th.
Collins said after the hearing that most of the work time issues during the pandemic occurred after his three clients’ duties were changed.
“There was confusion,” said Collins. “There weren’t many instructions from the department and unfortunately (the officers) allowed an overlap and it was a mistake on their part … They vowed themselves on neglect because they should have been proactive and realized that, if When times of special duty overlapped, it was their fault. “
Gibson agreed that most problems arose after pandemic-related schedule changes, but said, “They had pretty clear directions.”
Gibson was pursuing the case with Franklin County’s Assistant Attorney Jeffrey Blake, saying the appeals and resignations were due to “months of intense negotiations.”
The investigation began in October 2020 when then Police Chief Thomas Quinlan instructed Public Corruption Task Force officials to investigate “possible time theft and” double immersion “among High School Resource Officers and Community Liison Officers” and those assigned to a particular patrol area to work directly with neighborhood and block surveillance groups.
Quinlan who was January demoted to deputy boss and Released as head of Elaine Bryant in June, told The Dispatch on Thursday that the investigation “was conducted proactively because of a history of issues with special duties and time theft”.
Glenn McEntyre, a spokesman for the Department of Public Security, said 17 other officials are currently under “active administrative investigation”. As a result of the investigation, stricter monitoring elements and random checks had been introduced. No similar cases of time abuse or double-dipping have been reported since these measures were in place, he said.
Affidavits show how experienced police officers took advantage of public troughs for food
The allegations against the three criminally charged officers are set out in affidavits made by Columbus Police Sgt. Christopher Bond and filing criminal charges.
Thissen and McCague were high school resource officers in early 2020, but the pandemic closed schools in March that year. Officers were then reassigned to a variety of other roles ranging from serving in a police call center to responding to downtown social justice protests to guarding hospitals for criminal suspects and others.
While they were still working at their assigned high schools from January to March 2020, the investigation found both Thissen and McCague “hours of no explanation” because of “late arrival or departure … before school closes”.
McCague became a community liaison officer in August 2020. Townsend served as a community liaison officer throughout 2020.
“On many occasions,” McCague and Thissen, while serving as ward liaison officers, have provided “inaccurate information” about their whereabouts in their daily logs, according to the affidavits.
McCague was also found to be “double-immersed” in March 2020 and August 2020, working for the city and a special duty job for a car dealership “April through October.
Townsend was accused of overlapping “every month from January to October 2020” for the city and several private employers with special duties.
The affidavit states that Townsend was monitored from November 10-13, 2020 and “was observed to change his shift hours to accommodate special duties. He was seen visiting special duty places frequently during his shifts. “
Affidavits claim that sitting in cruisers, doing nothing and getting paid
In November 2020, Townsend reported several times that he was running or performing other police duties, but “he was watched by surveillance around town not performing any of the listed runs or duties and often idling in his cruiser at a substation”.
Thissen was accused of working for the city and a special job at a supermarket chain for six months in 2020.
“On several occasions,” wrote the sergeant, “Thissen went to his special duty and remained inactive in his cruiser for up to an hour before the start of his special duty.”
In addition to the monitoring, the investigators of the task force, according to the affidavits, collected the GPS data from cruisers and checked pay slips, IDs, fuel card usage, cruiser radio usage and the records on special tasks of private employers.
Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this report.
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