Indictment of Maj. Budd puts sheriff on hot seat

Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington has a lot of explaining to do.
First and foremost, Wellington should tell the taxpayers, who are trying to decide whether to support the renewal of the 0.5 percent sales tax, why he has placed on paid leave four deputies indicted on federal civil rights charges. One of the four is Michael Budd, who, after the indictment was unsealed last week, was demoted by Wellington from his position of major to his civil service classification of deputy and then placed on leave.
Why didn't Wellington simply fire Budd as major, which is a fiduciary position? Being a fiduciary means the individual serves at the pleasure of the sheriff. After all, the federal indictment relates to Budd's alleged actions as the second-in-command in the sheriff's department.
By demoting him, Wellington triggered provisions in the labor contract with the Fraternal Order of Police. Under the contract, a deputy who has been indicted has the option of taking an unpaid leave, or working in the "rubber gun" squad. Members of the squad are not permitted to carry a gun or make arrests.
With regard to all four deputies under indictment, Wellington said he was not comfortable having them work in the jail because of the charges against them. Therefore, he says, he was forced to place them on paid leave because they would not agree to unpaid leave.
But why not assign them to some other duties, such as in the records room, and then let them file grievances, if they so chose, on the finer point of whether the contract language pertaining to work in the jail is etched in stone? We are confident the sheriff could successfully argue that having the deputies in the jail was not an option and that he went out of his way to find them assignments that would not require them to do police work.
Ghost employees?
Now, however, Budd, and deputies Raymond Hull III, John Rivera and Ryan C. Strange are sitting at home drawing their salaries and benefits while their cases wind their way through the federal criminal justice system.
Another issue the sheriff must address is a warning that was sent to him last year about Budd's behavior as his right-hand man. The warning, contained in a letter, was issued by Assistant County Prosecutor Jay Macejko.
Macejko accused Budd of jeopardizing the prosecution of then-Deputy Mark Dixon, who was accused of a sex crime, because he lacked the necessary investigative training. The assistant prosecutor also charged that the major had withheld evidence at the grand jury.
"I must conclude that no one is less deserving of your trust or the trust of the people of Mahoning County than Michael Budd," Macejko wrote. "He is incompetent, malicious and dishonest. ... Never in my career have I witnessed more unprofessional, unlawful and shameful conduct in a case of this magnitude."
Wellington claims he did not read the letter when it arrived on his desk because he immediately received a facsimile from Macejko withdrawing the initial communiqu & eacute;. The assistant prosecutor says he was instructed by his supervisor to withdraw it.
The sheriff said Prosecutor Paul Gains asked that the letter be sent back to him. Gains told The Vindicator he ordered Macejko to withdraw the complaint because Wellington wanted the FBI to investigate how the prosecutor's office handled Dixon's case.
The case stemmed from the sheriff's department investigation of Dixon in November 2002 when an inmate said he forced her to perform oral sex in her jail cell.
On March 5, 2003, a plea agreement that had been worked out between the prosecutor's office and Dixon collapsed. On March 6, Budd invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination before a grand jury.
According to Gains, because the sheriff wanted the FBI to investigate how the prosecutor's office handled the Dixon case, he asked that Macejko's letter be returned because he didn't want it to negatively impact a federal probe.
Although Wellington claims that he did not read letter until a Vindicator reporter showed him a copy last week, he still must answer these questions: Were you told by anyone that the assistant prosecutor had leveled some serious charges against Budd? If so, by whom and when?
Wellington must also explain why, when the FBI did nothing in response to his request for an investigation, he did not launch his own internal probe or seek the appointment of a special prosecutor. After all, while he may not have known what Macejko was alleging, he certainly had an inkling that a problem existed between his confidante, Budd, and the assistant prosecutor.
Indeed, he has refused to provide The Vindicator with a copy of the report Budd wrote that detailed his version of the events in the Dixon case.
Civil rights case
It is noteworthy that Dixon, who is no longer with the sheriff's department and was indicted last March and charged with sexual battery, has been indicted by the federal government in a civil rights case that involves Budd and six others. The indictments are related to the beating of a county jail inmate.
Recently, we took Wellington to task for not reacting with outrage to the goings-on in his department.
Today, we go a step further and demand that he give Macejko an opportunity to fully air his complaints about Budd.
The sheriff must also explain why he has been so adamant about placing his trust in his second-in-command.