WARREN Officers cleared of citizens' complaints

There was not enough evidence to show cops exceeded their authority.
By DENISE DICK
and STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Safety-Service Director Fred Harris concurs with the police chief's conclusions on five internal affairs complaints released, clearing the respective officers of wrongdoing.
In all five complaints, Chief John Mandopoulos's conclusion mirrored that of the internal affairs officers who investigated the complaints.
"I'm concurring with Chief Mandopoulos's report; that doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it," Harris said, explaining that the allegations couldn't be proved through investigation.
Some of the investigations are difficult to complete as there may be no witnesses or people can't be reached or aren't willing to talk to police, he said.
"Sometimes it's one person's word against another's," Harris said.
In one complaint, a gay man alleged that an officer struck him in the nose and called him a "faggot."
The man's partner alleged that another officer arrested him for trespass in the police station and charges of disorderly conduct and resisting.
The man also contended the officer screamed at him and was rude.
The internal affairs investigator found there was no evidence to find the officer struck the man, and that the other man was told to leave the station and when escorted by the officer, he took a swing at him and was arrested.
Other complaints
An internal affairs investigator found that officers followed department policy in another case, in which a man complained his girlfriend -- not him -- should have been arrested for domestic violence.
Police also refused to arrest his girlfriend in the past, he alleged.
An investigator could not find evidence to prove or disprove a citizen's complaint that an officer moonlighting as an apartment complex security guard was rude and used foul language.
An investigation of an officer who faced criminal charges in Wadsworth for getting involved in a bar fight was dropped after the criminal charges were dismissed.
A man who complained that police were circling his house, following him and tapping his phones was mistaken, an investigator found.
Police are not investigating the man, who made a similar complaint last year, he said.