Officer guilty in theft of ice-melt salt

The sheriff said the deputy's crime puts the department in a bad light.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Mahoning County Area Court judge has found Deputy Jeffrey L. Haney II guilty of stealing eight 50-pound bags of ice-melt salt.
"This is something we don't tolerate; it puts the whole department in a bad light," Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said Friday. "This [crime] rises to the level of termination and that's what I will recommend to the hearing officer."
Wellington said his department's Internal Affairs Division would prepare a case, and Haney will face a disciplinary hearing. The 36-year-old deputy took sick leave in early December 2004. He has since used all his sick days and is off the payroll.
Haney, of Youngstown, has been with the sheriff's department for about 4 1/2 years.
"I just don't think it was a theft," James S. Gentile, Haney's lawyer, said Friday. "We are considering our options and will pursue it in the appeals court."
Judge Diane Vettori presided over Haney's 90-minute theft trial Thursday in Mahoning County Area Court, Austintown, and rendered her verdict Friday.
Sentencing was set for 11 a.m. July 14.
Haney faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
He took eight 50-pound bags of ice-melt salt from the sidewalk of the Sears store on Mahoning Avenue on Nov. 25, 2004. The store was closed that day for Thanksgiving.
Another officer's testimony
Haney's actions were seen by Austintown Patrolman Joseph Wojciak, who testified Thursday that he worked a private detail Thanksgiving Day at Wal-Mart, 6001 Mahoning Ave., and saw Haney load the bags into the bed of his pickup truck. Wal-Mart and Sears share a common parking lot.
Haney, who testified at trial, said he intended to have his wife pay for the rock salt the next day.
Kenneth Cardinal, an assistant county prosecutor, in questioning Haney, established that the deputy didn't leave his name on the bags of rock salt that remained on the sidewalk or tape a note to the door at Sears to let the store know he took eight bags and would pay later. The bags were valued at $85.52 with tax.
In court Thursday, Haney said he suffered a lower back injury in June 2004. Cardinal asked if he had any problem lifting the 50-pound bags of salt from the Sears sidewalk.
Haney said the back pain comes and goes and he had no discomfort the day he lifted the bags because he picked them up at waist level.
meade@vindy.com