MAHONING CO. Deputy is subject of probe

A quarrel in a parking lot led to a chase and a call to 911.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning County Sheriff's department is investigating a complaint against at least one deputy after an episode that the complaint says began in the parking lot of an Austintown nightclub last month.
Sheriff Randall Wellington said Wednesday that his internal affairs division is interviewing deputy Michael Wilson, 25, of Austintown.
Wilson was the driver of a car that was followed by two other patrons of The Wedge on Raccoon Road about 1:30 a.m. May 28 after an incident in which the two other patrons say their car door was deliberately damaged. No criminal charges have been filed.
One of those patrons, Alexis Smith, 21, of Liberty, lodged the complaint with the department, Wellington said.
Smith, 21, who was driving a rental car, and her passenger, Erika Jackson, 21, also of Liberty, were getting into their car, which was parked next to Wilson's, an Austintown police report says.
Wilson and two other men were getting into his car at the same time. As one of them was getting into the car, he accidentally hit Smith's door with Wilson's. When Smith confronted him about it, the report says, he kicked the car door into hers.
Women followed
Then, the women say, Wilson drove off quickly with no lights. The women followed his car in a pursuit that would result in their making 911 calls to Austintown and Youngstown about what the women allege was reckless driving, and ultimately to a traffic stop by a Mill Creek MetroParks police officer in Youngstown. The women said they watched the officer, Donald Korda, speak to Wilson and let him go "almost immediately," Jackson said.
Korda's report indicates he saw Wilson driving with no headlights and pulled him over. During the stop, Wilson identified himself as a deputy sheriff, showing his picture ID and badge, Korda's report says. The other two men also showed deputies' IDs and badges, Korda reported. He warned Wilson about his lights being off and released him.
"He had his lights off, driving crazy," Jackson said. She said last week that she and Smith did not know at the time Wilson was a deputy sheriff. "How can you enforce the law if you are breaking it yourself?" she said.
Long call
In her 911 call, which lasts 10 minutes, Smith describes what she said was Wilson's driving to dispatchers in Austintown, Youngstown, and Austintown again as they traveled on Raccoon, New, Kirk and South Meridian roads, Vollmer Drive, Deborah Court and Meadow Lane.
On the tape, Smith alleges to the dispatcher that Wilson was speeding, that he drove through red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road and didn't have his headlights on.
Smith can be heard asking why the police hadn't arrived yet as, she said, Wilson drove on Meadow Lane with no lights.
The Austintown dispatcher tells her that there are no police available yet to come.
When Korda pulled Wilson over at Kirk Road and Wendover Circle in Youngstown, Smith got out of her car to talk to him.
Korda ordered her back into her car.
Smith said last week that she told Korda about the car-door incident, and she tried to tell him about the reckless driving. She said she doesn't remember exactly what she had time to say.
Korda did not return a call for comment by press time. Lt. Bruce Emery of the MetroParks department said it is at "the officer's discretion" whether to cite someone or let him go. Emery said that Korda was out of his jurisdiction, which is the park and roads adjacent to it. He said that Korda could have called Youngstown police, but apparently saw no need.
Said he would pay
Austintown detective Frank Tomasino handled the criminal damaging complaint about the car door.
He said he contacted Wilson to tell him he would be responsible for the damage because he was driving. Wilson told Tomasino that he would make restitution, but the rental car company never called to ask for it, Tomasino said.
Tomasino said that without a victim -- the rental car company -- he has no crime.
He said he cannot pursue the claims of reckless driving, because an officer has to witness such driving before charges can be filed. He said the MetroParks officer would have been the one to initiate any action.
Wilson said earlier this week that only one of the two others in the car with him that night was a deputy sheriff. He did not identify him. Wilson said that the man who kicked the car door, which he said he didn't realize had happened, is not a deputy.
Wilson disputed Korda's report that he and the others showed IDs and badges. He said he told Korda where he worked. "Nobody else spoke in the car."
He said he did not drive the way the women described. "That never happened."
He agreed his lights were out when he was pulled over. He said he forgot to turn them on.
He said he and his friends had been drinking. "We did have some. I don't remember how much." He said, however, that they were not drunk.