WARREN Police chief says he never made threats

The hearing also addressed a TV reporter's allegations of intimidation.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A transcript from a predisciplinary hearing for Police Chief John Mandopoulos has Mayor Hank Angelo saying the chief threatened to get him the day Mandopoulos received letters that he was facing possible administrative charges.
"Your comment to me was, 'I will get you, no matter how much money it takes. I will get you, no matter what, for embarrassing me,' " Angelo said in the hearing, according to the transcript.
The chief denies making a threat.
"That was a conversation between you and I," the chief is quoted in the transcript. "I told you I'm not guilty of any of this and you're making stuff up. There's no threat. I wouldn't threaten you. You know that."
The mayor, however, said he believed it was a threat and ordered the chief at the hearing's end to "cease and desist."
Actions outside nightclub
The hearing was conducted in October to determine if the chief should be disciplined for his actions outside 77 Soul, a city nightclub on U.S. Route 422 (Youngstown-Warren Road), and in connection with allegations that he intimidated a television reporter.
The mayor has not issued a decision.
During the hearing, which lasted about an hour, the chief's attorney, Dennis Haines, said his client did nothing wrong.
According to the transcript, the chief was in the parking lot of 77 Soul on May 24, and he and Officer Manny Nites were videotaped giving close-up views of their eyeballs to a man videotaping the area for the club's owner, LaShawn Ziegler.
The chief has said he and Nites were only joking. Haines noted the chief did not interfere with the videotaping.
"He conducted himself in a manner that was consistent with his duties as a police chief," Haines is quoted in the transcript.
Fred Harris, safety-service director, however, questioned if the chief believed that Nites acted properly.
"Was there a need for Manny Nites to repeat the words snitch, bitch, n-----? What was the reason for him repeating that?" Harris asked.
Haines responded that Nites was repeating what a citizen had said to the man who was videotaping.
"That was all in the part of the line of duty as a police officer that he needed to repeat that, make sure he heard that, is that right?" Harris asked.
Haines replied, "Yeah," according to the transcript.
"One thing about police officers, they've got to have street smarts and have to have the ability to deal with people on the street and, unfortunately, that language is now used. Manny Nites did not initiate the language into the conversation. Others did," Haines stated.
Harris countered that he found no reason for Nites to have repeated the words.
TV reporter
In another matter, Haines and Mandopoulos said they don't believe what a TV reporter said about the chief's intimidating her was true.
A letter sent to city officials from Atty. Stephen T. Bolton, who represents WFMJ TV Channel 21, states the chief confronted TV 21 reporter Michelle Nicks on Aug. 1 about several issues, including the 77 Soul videotape.
The letter says the chief told Nicks he was going to give the home addresses of Nicks and all other local reporters to drug dealers and was going to get area labor unions to organize a boycott of businesses that advertise with WFMJ and The Vindicator.
The chief has denied the allegations.
"There was never any attempt to intimidate her," the hearing transcript quotes Haines as saying.
sinkovich@vindy.com