POLICE Warren detective files comp claim for 1994 injury

The detective applied for workers' compensation last month. The allegations against him are being investigated.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A police detective who recently served a 40-day unpaid suspension and is being investigated for other allegations has applied for workers' compensation.
Detective Dewey Gray applied for workers' compensation last month due to a 1994 injury, according to the city's human resource director.
This is the first time the city officials say they remember someone has filed a claim for a 10-year-old injury. It will be up to the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to investigate the claim, city officials said.
Gray, who is off work, could not be reached to comment.
City officials did not know how Gray was injured in 1994.
Police officials have said that internal affairs officials are trying to determine whether the detective accepted money to fix a traffic-related ticket.
Police Chief John Mandopoulos issued Gray's 40-day discipline in April. Gray, a 14-year department veteran, is appealing the suspension to an arbitrator.
Accusations
Gray was accused of offering to buy a German handgun from an elderly woman.
The chief stated in his three-page ruling that he found Gray guilty of two administrative charges, using his position as a police officer to gain advantage in personal matters and buying an item from a person he came in contact with through his employment.
The chief added in the ruling that Gray's actions in the case have caused fellow officers and the public to question his integrity.
The internal affairs report says a woman called police last September and asked them to take a .32-caliber revolver and a German Luger handgun. The woman's husband was in a nursing home, and she no longer wanted the guns in her house.
The detective offered the woman $20 for the revolver and told her he'd have the Luger appraised before making her an offer. Before getting the guns appraised, he learned an internal investigation had been started and turned the guns over to the department's evidence room, records say.
sinkovich@vindy.com