MAHONING COUNTY Parking officer says deputy assaulted him

The deputy had to turn in his gun and equipment.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff Ronald J. Casey has been placed on paid administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation that he hit a parking enforcement officer who wrote a $10 ticket.
Maj. Michael Budd said today that the complaint against Casey, 34, of Youngstown, has been turned over to the sheriff's department's Internal Affairs Division. Budd said Casey was put on leave Wednesday and had to turn in his gun and other equipment.
The parking enforcement officer filed an assault report Wednesday afternoon at the Youngstown Police Department and enclosed a copy of the ticket he issued. City police then took two photographs of Casey's 2004 Chrysler, which they say was illegally parked on South Phelps Street between Boardman and Front streets.
"He was clearly parked in a no parking zone," Budd said.
At the time, Casey was working an exterior patrol at the Mahoning County Courthouse, the major said.
The parking enforcement officer, in a handwritten report for police, said he was working on West Front Street near Trinity United Methodist Church around noon Wednesday when he heard someone yelling, "Hey! Hey!" and saw a uniformed deputy running toward him.
The report says the deputy, later identified as Casey, waved the ticket and put his face inches away from the parking enforcement officer's face and said: "Why did you give me a ticket? You can't give me a ticket. I wasn't parked at a meter."
The parking officer told the deputy to read the ticket and he'd understand why it was issued. The ticket shows the violation as parking in a no parking zone.
The report says Casey then got angry and attempted to shove the ticket into the parking officer's shirt pocket, yelling: "You're taking this ticket back! You're taking it back!"
The parking officer told police he moved away from the deputy and told him he was "out of line."
The deputy, saying he wasn't going to pay the ticket, struck the parking officer in his right temple, reports show. The ticket fell to the street, and the deputy headed up the alley behind the courthouse.
The parking enforcement officer picked up the ticket and gave it to police. A check of the Chrysler's license plate revealed Casey as the car's owner, police said.