YOUNGSTOWN Probe looks at cop after carbon monoxide death

By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A police officer sent to check on a car behind the Royal Oaks bar is under investigation by internal affairs because the man inside the running car was discovered dead after the officer cleared the call as "unfounded."
A preliminary report shows that Steven E. Mulichak, 36, of East Boston Avenue, died Sept. 21 of acute carbon monoxide poisoning, Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk, Trumbull County forensic pathologist, said Monday. Mulichak's body went to Forum Health Northside Medical Center, which meant the autopsy was done by the Trumbull County coroner's office.
Patrolman Brent Gaitanis' actions have been under investigation since Sept. 21, when a complaint was filed against him by a supervisor, said Lt. Robin Lees, Youngstown Police Department spokesman. The investigation should be complete by the time Gaitanis returns to works from his regular days off this week, Lees said.
Gaitanis, 30, was hired in September 2000. He could not be reached.
The Vindicator obtained a copy of the 911 and police dispatcher's audiotape for the Sept. 21 call.
A woman dialed 911 at 5:04 a.m. to report that a car had been running behind the Royal Oaks at 924 Oak St. "for an hour or so."
At 5:16 a.m., Gaitanis was sent to the bar.
At 5:19 a.m., the officer arrived and reported a code 91 to the radio dispatcher, meaning the call was unfounded. His shifted ended at 6 a.m.
At 6:29 a.m. the same woman called 911 again. "This car is still sitting back here running, and I don't think the police came yet," she said.
The call taker checked the records then told the woman "they didn't find it last time" and that a different officer would be sent.
Victim found
At 6:48, Patrolman Michael Walker arrived at the bar and found the early 1970s Ford running, with Mulichak sitting in it, and told the radio dispatcher to send an ambulance.
Walker can then be heard saying: "I can't wake him up. I have a nonbreather. Send me a supervisor."
The radio dispatcher told Walker that a cruiser had been sent after the first call and "they cleared it 91, said there was no cars in the parking lot."
According to the audiotape, the supervisor, Detective Sgt. Douglas Bobovnyik, requested a printout of who was sent on the first call and the times involved. He also called out homicide detectives and a crime lab officer.
Dr. Germaniuk said a test of the car that Mulichak had been in showed it reached a lethal carbon monoxide limit in two minutes. "The higher the level, the shorter time to die," he said.
He said Mulichak's car's muffler is split on the driver's side, has numerous perforations in the exhaust system, and is noisy and smoky.
Toxicology reports on Mulichak will not be ready for a few weeks, Dr. Germaniuk said.
The forensic pathologist said Mulichak's carbon monoxide death in a vehicle is the third of its kind this year in Trumbull County. The first was a Howland man and the second an interstate trucker, he said.
The Mahoning County coroner's office has had no carbon monoxide deaths this year, a spokesman said.
How this happens
"You may be intoxicated when you leave a bar and decide to sleep it off before driving and you die, especially now that it's fall and heaters are running," Dr. Germaniuk said.
"People think of checking smoke detectors in the house. They should think of motor vehicles. They could have a faulty exhaust system."
He said carbon monoxide is called the "silent killer" because it's a colorless, odorless gas that overcomes its victims. Cars should never be warmed up in garages with the doors closed, he said.
"This is a public health concern. These deaths should not occur," he said.
meade@vindy.com