Firefighter apologizes, pleads no contest

The fire chief wanted the firefighter fired but settled for a suspension.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Firefighter Daniel P. Drummond apologized in municipal court for firing a shotgun while intoxicated and was placed on probation.
As part of a plea agreement, City Prosecutor Dionne M. Almasy asked that the second charge of discharging a firearm within city limits be dismissed. She said the weapon will be forfeited to police.
Drummond, 29, of the city's West Side, had been scheduled for a pretrial Tuesday but decided to plead no contest.
Judge Robert P. Milich dismissed the second charge and placed Drummond on one year's community control, commonly called probation, and fined him $100. The judge ordered that Drummond continue with outpatient treatment.
Drummond's attorney, Edward J. Hartwig, told the judge that his client spent five weeks in the Neil Kennedy Center, a substance abuse facility. Hartwig added that Drummond "is lucky to keep his job as a firefighter."
Suspended
Drummond was placed on 30-day unpaid suspension from his job on Oct. 17. He was hired in March 2000.
At the time of the suspension, Fire Chief John J. O'Neill Jr. said he would recommend that Drummond be fired. The recommendation was considered by a predisciplinary hearing officer.
O'Neill said Tuesday that the union and its attorney talked to the city labor consultant, who believed that termination would not hold unless Drummond was convicted of a felony.
"My personal feeling is that he should have been fired but I'm hamstrung by the decision of the labor consultant who believes in the long run [Drummond] would win his job back and back pay," O'Neill said. "The consultant reasoned we couldn't dismiss him and have it stick."
Last chance
O'Neill said Drummond, who had a substance abuse problem in the past, has signed a "last chance" agreement with the city.
"If he has any trouble with the law or substance abuse in the next two years he will be fired and he agreed to that with no appeal," the chief said. "I can test him every month at random -- and I will."
Drummond's arrest took place Oct. 15.
Police were sent to the Nadyne Drive-Kirk Road area around 11:25 p.m. to check out a report of gunfire. The officers heard a sound they recognized -- someone loading a round into a shotgun -- in the 2600 block of Kirk. Police took cover behind a garage, heard sounds of someone fiddling with a shotgun and then saw Drummond on the side of the garage with a shotgun in hand.
The officers drew their weapons and ordered Drummond to put the shotgun down and lay prone on the ground. The officers noticed that Drummond had a strong odor of alcohol when he spoke and also slurred his words.
"I'm sorry it happened," Drummond said in court. "I was out in the garage cleaning the gun and drinking." He said he'd also taken sleeping pills. He said he fired the gun after hearing someone in the neighborhood and thinking he would be robbed.
O'Neill called Drummond's version of the event a bunch of baloney. "I don't buy his story at all," the chief said.
meade@vindy.com