Officer is cleared in threat case

SALEM — Police Officer Richard Kimble II will return to work Thursday, Chief Robert Floor said Tuesday.

Floor said that Kimble has been to the station to collect his equipment. The officer had been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 6.

The chief said Kimble could be called out before Thursday if another officer became ill and couldn’t work his regular shift.

Coleen Hall Dailey, a magistrate in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court, and Judge David Tobin approved entries Monday clearing the officer of a claim he had threatened family members, including an 8-year-old girl from his wife’s previous marriage.

Another magistrate had issued a ruling without a hearing that barred the officer from having a gun based on the complaint by the girl’s father.

The incident is alleged to have occurred between Aug. 29 and Sept. 2 in the Perry Township home where Kimble, his wife, and their 9-month-old son lived.

But after hearing testimony, Dailey ruled, “The child was in school on [Aug. 30] when her testimony indicates this incident occurred [at Kimble’s home].”