Local trooper’s firing puts cases in question

The trooper was fired for not showing up for court and charging for the overtime.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

WARREN — Some drunken-driving cases filed by an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper in Trumbull County will be dismissed because the trooper who issued the citations has been fired.

Trooper Willie Smith, an eight-year patrol veteran working at the patrol’s Southington post, was terminated from his job effective Oct. 16, according to the state, for not appearing in two cases and then lying about it.

He is also charged with not filing an affidavit as required in an operating a vehicle while impaired, or OVI, charge, according to the termination noticed issued by the Ohio Department of Public Safety.

Tracy Timko-Rose, a prosecutor at Warren Municipal Court, said Smith filed charges in 25 cases, 15 of them OVI citations.

Some of the cases, Timko-Rose explained, will be continued. But because the two municipal judges want cases off their dockets in six months, some cases will be dismissed because Smith won’t be available to testify.

“I’m not going to bail out on everything because he [Smith] might get his job back,” she said.

At Trumbull County Central District Court in Cortland, a spokeswoman said Smith has charged 15 motorists with OVI, but the number that are pending hasn’t been determined.

At Trumbull County Eastern District Court in Brookfield, a spokeswoman said the court doesn’t have the computer software to search citations by the issuing officer.

There are four OVI cases pending in Newton Falls Municipal Court, for which Smith filed the charges.

In the termination letter from Henry Guzman, ODPS director, to Smith, Guzman charged Smith with violating two patrol rules and regulations involving giving false statements and performance of duty.

Specifically, Smith, 31, is charged with failure to appear May 11 for a case and then submitting a time slip that he appeared. A similar situation occurred June 25.

A trooper is compensated for court duty if he or she is not on duty at the time of the hearing. They are given three hours of premium pay or 41⁄2 hours of compensatory time off.

Also, Guzman charged Smith for failure to file an affidavit in an OVI case and was not truthful in explaining why he failed to do so.

Timko-Rose said some motorists facing an OVI charge will be happy when their cases are dismissed.

However, she cautioned that some cases will go forward if there was another witness, such as a second trooper, involved or the citation can stand on its own.

Timko-Rose said that if the prosecution dismisses a charge, it can be refiled.

“Refiling is always on option,” she commented, noting that Smith was a “very active” trooper writing a lot of citations in the county.

yovich@vindy.com