YOUNGSTOWN Detective receives written rebuke

The detective is taking steps to file complaints with her union and the EEOC.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Detective Sgt. Delphine Baldwin Casey has received a written reprimand for the way she conducted a rape investigation and for insubordination toward Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains.
Police Chief Richard Lewis' three-page reprimand letter to Casey said the complaints against her came from a letter he received in August from Gains and from a woman who went to the police department's Internal Affairs Division in September, dissatisfied with the way Casey conducted her rape investigation.
Casey, who is assigned to the Youngstown Police Department's Crisis Intervention Unit, said Monday that she is taking steps to file a grievance through her union and to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She said she has been harassed because she is a woman.
Contacted about the reprimand, Gains said that Lewis' decision is fine with him.
In the letter: According to the reprimand, Gains had received a call from Casey and during their conversation he expressed concern about what he considered numerous failings in a rape investigation she was conducting. The discussion was about a different rape case, not the one she was reprimanded for.
The conversation involved a gang rape. Later a gag order was issued by both the juvenile and common pleas courts to prohibit detectives, especially Casey, from talking to the press about the case.
In the reprimand letter, Lewis said Casey took exception to what Gains said about her investigation and hung up on him.
Casey said she had initially called Gains' office trying to reach Lewis there but ended up talking to Gains and said goodbye three times before hanging up.
"I was surprised to see that in there about Paul Gains," Casey said of the reprimand. "I was never told that I was under investigation about hanging up on him."
She said that when under investigation by internal affairs, police must be notified of complaints against them.
"The [rape] investigation that you conducted in this case and your insubordination toward Mr. Gains cannot be tolerated," Lewis wrote. "The Youngstown Police Department expects more professionalism and competency from its employees."
The problems: Based on findings from internal affairs, Lewis said too much time elapsed between the time the woman reported the rape and when Casey started investigating. He said Casey also contacted the suspect's family, which may have allowed the release of confidential information.
In all, the chief enumerated seven missteps in Casey's investigation, saying that evidence not gathered properly and in a timely manner may be forever lost to the criminal justice system.
In a letter to Lewis in October, Casey said she disagreed with a powerful and political figure -- Gains -- and that he retaliated. Casey blames the prosecutor for instigating complaints against her.
meade@vindy.com