WARREN Cop avoids strip-search

The jail asked for better searches of prisoners about two years ago.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A city police officer says he often asked people he arrested to remove their clothes so he could check for contraband in case they went to jail.
But, said Sgt. Robert Massucci, he does not recall ever performing a body-cavity search.
"All I ever did was ask them to take their clothes off because people will hide drugs in their private area," Massucci said.
He noted that officers were ordered to do "better searches" on people before taking them to the Trumbull County jail.
Capt. Tim Bowers said the jail sent a letter to the city two years ago saying some prisoners from Warren were carrying contraband on them.
"The officers were told to do a better job searching, but they were not instructed to do strip searches," Bowers said.
LaShawn Ziegler and Brandon Rogers told The Vindicator that Massucci and another officer arrested them in June 2002. The two said they were charged with driving under suspension, taken to the city police station and strip-searched.
Ziegler said the two had to take off their clothes, bend over and cough.
"I don't really remember all the details because it's been so long, but they were asked to take off their clothes; they were not asked to bend down and cough. I never did that," Massucci said.
Rogers said he complained to police about the matter, but as far he knows, nothing happened.
"I moved out of Warren because the strip-search just kind of scared me," Rogers said. "I just wanted to stay away from Warren. I feel they violated my civil rights."
The charges against both men were later dismissed after they showed proof they had valid driver's licenses.
Ziegler and Rogers are not the only ones saying they were strip-searched as the result of traffic stops.
Dominic Gambone, 25, who lived on South Project S.E. when he was arrested in February 2002 on charges of driving under suspension and driving slow, filed a complaint with the police department in March saying Patrolmen Tim Parana and Robert Trimble did a body-cavity search on him.
Parana told the internal investigating officer he routinely does the searches on all males he arrests. The internal affairs officer found Parana and Trimble violated state law and departmental policy. Police Chief John Mandopoulos, however, has declined to discipline the officers.
Atty. Kenneth D. Myers, adjunct professor at the Cleveland-Marshall School of Law at Cleveland State University, said courts have determined that conducting an illegal strip-search is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
State law also notes that officers who did not make reports of the strip-search can also face a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge.
"I can't say the strip-searches were done on a routine basis," Bowers said. "It's a training issue. The officers will have to be trained that when a strip-search is done, certain procedures have to be followed. We will also have to do a real good pat down without taking the clothes off."
Massucci said officers want to make sure that those who go to the jail aren't hiding illegal drugs or weapons.
"If the Trumbull County jail would process those arrested by Warren police, we wouldn't have these problems, " Bowers said.
Sheriff Thomas Altiere and Ernie Cook, chief of operations at the sheriff's department, said the jail does not have a large enough staff to process city prisoners.