BOARDMAN Cop accused of abduction has a history

The officer on leave was forced to undergo an evaluation last year to determine if he was fit for duty. His accuser has filed several police complaints in three communities.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- A township police officer accused of abducting a Youngstown woman from a restaurant parking lot earlier this month has had job-related discipline problems that began in September 2000, when he crashed his truck after leaving the same bar and fled the scene, according to his personnel file.
The woman accusing him of abduction has filed several police reports in Boardman, Youngstown and Girard, some of which are against a former boyfriend who was once found guilty of assaulting her.
In her latest complaint in Boardman, Carrie Eckert has accused Boardman Township police Lt. John M. Rosensteel of forcing her into his truck in the lot of the Ground Round restaurant in the early morning of June 2. Eckert, a 24-year-old waitress at the restaurant, said she and a friend had drinks with some Boardman officers at the end of her shift.
She said she ended up alone in the lot with Rosensteel, who "dragged," "pulled" and "shoved" her into his truck, drove her to the Fireplace restaurant on Western Reserve Road and forced her inside. She said she escaped to a bathroom and called for help, and was later forced back into the truck.
Police located the truck as Rosensteel drove north on South Avenue. He stopped in the Ground Round lot, where Eckert ran from the truck to the arms of a police officer.
Placed on leave
Boardman police are investigating the event, both criminally and administratively. Rosensteel has been placed on a paid leave while the matter is resolved. In a memo, Chief Jeffrey L. Patterson has instructed Rosensteel to take no action that might improperly interfere with the outcome of the investigation. Rosensteel has also been warned against contacting the woman, her family or witnesses.
Rosensteel, 57, of Poland Township, was hired by the Boardman department in May 1969, according to his personnel file. He had worked as a Poland Village officer from January 1968 to April 1969.
He was promoted to detective in 1975 and is currently a midnight turn commander. His personnel file contains no comments or evaluations pertaining to his promotion.
Left accident
In September 2000, he agreed to be docked 40 hours of vacation time and to serve a 5-day, 40-hour suspension without pay after an accident on South Avenue near Beech Avenue. Rosensteel had crashed his truck into a street sign and walked away from the accident, according to his file. Another officer had seen him drinking at the Ground Round before the accident, his file shows.
Rosensteel told a supervisor he had lost control while using his cellular phone. He said he walked away to go to a friend's home nearby.
Also in his file are two letters of reprimand, both for failing to attend a mandatory supervisory staff meeting, the first in January 2001, the second in September 2001. According to one letter, after the September meeting Rosensteel told supervisors he was on vacation the day before the meeting and had a regular day off on the day of the meeting, and that he was not sent a reminder. There is no explanation in the file for why the January meeting was missed.
Rosensteel underwent a psychological evaluation in the spring and summer of 2001. A psychologist reports that the evaluation was done because "there is a question as to whether Mr. Rosensteel is fit for duty as a police officer in Boardman Township." The psychologist found him fit for duty.
Warning in file
There is also one warning in the file, dated January 2002, for inappropriate verbal conduct toward an officer in the presence of another supervisor and within earshot of other officers. The document also warns against the overuse of police radio traffic during a canine track of a suspect and against revealing the inventory of a vehicle over the radio.
Patterson said a recent published report that said Rosensteel was the subject of a township employee's stalking complaint was incorrect. He also said there was no discipline hearing involving Rosensteel last week.
Rosensteel's file also contains eight letters of commendation from various chiefs from 1970 to 1996, several letters of thanks and recognition from department supervisors through 1999, and several letters of appreciation from Boardman residents, business owners and organizations and from other police departments and prosecutors, dated through 1998.
Eckert has said that she wants Rosensteel kicked off the force. She said he threatened her and she was deathly afraid of him, and was devastated that night at the thought that she might never again see her 17-month-old son.
Reports to police
Between 1992 and 1996, 12 police reports were filed by Eckert and her mother in Boardman, where they lived on Flagler Lane.
In the first, filed by Eckert when she was 14, she accuses an 18-year-old man of coming to her door and threatening to kill her.
Many of the others involve threats directed at Eckert by other teens, both male and female.
Dating back to February 1999, Eckert has filed 18 police complaints in Girard and Youngstown. She has lived in both communities. Most of the complaints from 2000 and 2001 relate to an ex-boyfriend and accuse him of cracking her car windshield, making harassing phone calls, cutting her telephone line, stalking her and violating a protection order by walking by her home. In March 2000, she filed a report that the ex-boyfriend had grabbed her and threw her into a wall. He later pleaded no contest to an assault charge and was sentenced to 90 days, of which 76 were suspended, and was given credit for 14 days served. He was placed on probation.
In a report of menacing filed in May 2002, Eckert accuses another ex-boyfriend of threatening to kill her and her son.
In Youngstown
Earlier reports filed by Eckert, in 1999, make various complaints. One alleges that someone entered her then-home on Maryland Avenue and stole beer from her dining room table. Others relate to a flat tire and a bent car antenna.
In one, she reports to Youngstown police that a woman attacked her on the street near Florida Avenue and Market Street after she offered the woman a place to stay for the night. In another, she reports to Youngstown police that she was using a pay phone on South Avenue when a man hollered at her and she saw him masturbating before he approached her and fondled her, fleeing when she screamed.