Former Boardman officer in sex case gets 6 months

As a police officer, the defendant was supposed to be one of the good guys, the judge said.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- For five years as a Boardman police officer, Stephen Kendall worked to lock up criminals, but he was the one wearing the handcuffs Wednesday.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Kendall, 34, of Tippecanoe Road, to six months in Community Corrections Association's Market Street facility. He'll undergo sex offender counseling during his stay.
A Mahoning County deputy sheriff handcuffed Kendall after the hearing Wednesday and transported him to the Mahoning County Justice Center. From there he was to go to CCA. After completing that six months, Kendall will be on probation for three years.
Though the judge said he agreed with Kendall's attorney, J. Gerald Ingram, that it's unlikely that Kendall will commit a crime in the future, he had to consider the girl's age and that Kendall was a policeman.
He was supposed to be one of the good guys, Judge Krichbaum said.
"He was supposed to be an example for others to follow," the judge said.
Guilty plea
Kendall pleaded guilty in January to a bill of information charging him with gross sexual imposition of a 17-year-old girl.
He resigned from the patrolman job he held for five years a day before Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains filed the information.
Dawn Krueger, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, recommended probation, pointing to a letter from the victim's family. The girl's family didn't want her to be exposed to court proceedings and believed that the former officer was remorseful for his actions.
No one from the girl's family attended Wednesday's sentencing.
Incidents that led to Kendall's being on the other side of the law started Jan. 1 while he was on duty.
According to documents from the township police department's internal investigation, the activities that occurred over the two weeks that followed included consensual sex with a 25-year-old in a police car while on duty, using the Law Enforcement Automated Data System to look up both the 17-and 25-year-old women, sending sexually explicit photographs to the 17-year-old's cell phone and paying the girl 500 for sex.
Another former officer, Ken Kasiewicz, who wasn't charged with a crime, also used LEADS to run the women's information. He also resigned from his job.
Kendall will also have to register as a sexually oriented offender for 10 years.
What lawyer said
Ingram said that Kendall already suffered the loss of his career and public ridicule stemming from the incidents. He's in counseling both at his church and at a counseling facility, Ingram said.
He said the victim didn't undergo any physical or emotional injury from the incidents. It was the girl's idea for Kendall to pay her for sex and to exchange photographs, the attorney said.
On an Internet Web site, the girl lists herself as 23.
"That certainly doesn't portray someone who was traumatized," Ingram said.
Kendall apologized to the court, the police department, the community and his family. He acknowledged that he knew the girl's age.
"I've lost the respect from my fellow police officers and have been the subject of public ridicule," Kendall said. "My life is forever changed."
The judge said he believes police officers should be held in high esteem by the public, but what Kendall did detracts from that.
Judge Krichbaum said he believes Kendall learned his lesson and agreed he's been through a lot.
He also believes Kendall used his position as a police officer in the acts to which he pleaded guilty.
"You held a position of public trust," the judge said.