Sheriff punishes deputies

The deputy who was driving denied he was reckless.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two Mahoning County deputy sheriffs involved in a complaint of criminal damaging and reckless driving were given a three-day suspension after the sheriff's department investigated the complaint.
Sheriff Randall Wellington said Wednesday the deputies, Mike Wilson, 25, and Charles Heim, 25, who both work at the jail, will serve their suspensions by relinquishing compensatory time.
Wilson, Heim and a third man were involved in an episode with two women, Alexis Smith and Erika Jackson, both 21 and of Liberty, in the parking lot of The Wedge, a nightclub on Raccoon Road in Austintown. Both parties were leaving the club about 1:30 a.m. May 28 and were parked next to each other.
Wilson has said the other man with him and Heim that night was not a deputy, though one police report indicates that there were two other deputies with Wilson. As the third man was getting into Wilson's car, he accidentally bumped the car door into Smith's, she said. Smith said that when she confronted him about it, he got belligerent and purposely kicked Wilson's car door into hers.
Women called 911
The women said that Wilson quickly pulled out of the parking lot. They followed him, and in calls to 911 dispatchers in Austintown and Youngstown that last a total of 10 minutes, Smith alleged that Wilson was speeding, driving without headlights, driving on the wrong side of the road at times and running red lights. They traveled in Austintown and Youngstown on Raccoon, New, Kirk and South Meridian roads, Vollmer Drive, Deborah Court and Meadow Lane. An Austintown dispatcher told Smith at one point that there were no police officers available yet to respond to her complaint, a 911 tape shows.
Wilson was stopped at Kirk Road and Wendover Circle in Youngstown by a Mill Creek MetroParks police officer who saw him driving without headlights. Officer Donald Korda's report from that night indicates all three men in the car showed deputy sheriff IDs and badges. Smith tried to approach Korda to tell him about the reckless driving, she said, and was ordered back into her car. The women watched as Korda allowed Wilson to drive away.
Wellington said that his department spoke with Korda, who said the men showed badges after he asked who the police officers were in the car. The car had an official FOP sticker on its license plate, which is how Korda knew it belonged to someone in law enforcement, Wellington said.
Korda's report indicates he let Wilson leave after giving him a warning about his lights.
Denies being reckless
Wellington said Wilson denied reckless driving. He said that for the disciplinary hearing, the department needed to talk with Smith and Jackson. He said they would have to substantiate the claims on the 911 tape. But even after his department sent them registered letters, he said, the women did not respond to requests for their testimony.
The Vindicator reached Smith on June 29 and asked her if she intended to testify. She said that she no longer cared what happened to Wilson but that she would consider testifying. Wellington said he never heard from her or Jackson.
Wellington said the department acted on evidence it could substantiate from Korda, which was that Wilson was driving without headlights.
Austintown Detective Frank Tomasino investigated Smith's criminal damaging complaint over her car, which was a rental. But the rental company never asked for damages, Tomasino said, so that case was closed. No charges were filed against Wilson, who as the driver that night was considered responsible for his passenger's actions.
starmack@vindy.com